Former President Donald Trump has called for accountability for those involved in the investigation of alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia, after the release of a report by Special Counsel John Durham (known as the Durham Report). In an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday, Trump said, “There must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this,” referring to the long-running investigation that he called a “treasonous charade.”
“I, and much more importantly, then American public have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats — started by Comey,” Trump told Fox
Durham’s report, which spans more than 300 pages, concludes that the Department of Justice and FBI “failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law” when they launched the Trump-Russia investigation. The report also notes that “senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically-affiliated persons and entities,” which contributed to the need for Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.
Trump praised Durham’s investigation as “very thorough,” but criticized the actions of Comey and Democrats, saying, “the national security implications of what they did are very grave.” He added that the report “turned out to be a giant and very dangerous hoax” and promised to have “further comment in the near future.”
The FBI issued a statement in response to Durham’s report, saying that “current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time.” The statement emphasized the importance of “rigor, objectivity, and professionalism” in the FBI’s work.
The release of Durham’s report comes after years of investigation into the origins of the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” probe, which looked into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. The report concludes that the investigation never should have been launched, and that the DOJ and FBI failed to uphold their mission of upholding the law.
