For $6.5 Million, Durham Report Finds FBI Didn’t Have Solid Dirt on Trump and Russia

May 17, 2023

Plus: Reexamining the roots of qualified immunity, who’s really hurt by business regulations, and more…

by Elizabeth Nolan Brown Reason.com

The FBI should never have launched its probe into possible collusion between former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, according to Special Counsel John Durham. The FBI’s investigation was hastily opened “based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence” and “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,” wrote Durham in a report on the investigation he was appointed by former Attorney General William Barr to lead.

Ultimately, the FBI failed to act with “appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy between a U.S. political campaign and a foreign power,” concluded Durham in his 316-page report, which was released Monday.