John Durham Says FBI Agents ‘Apologized’ To Him For Trump-Russia Investigation
ARJUN SINGHCONTRIBUTOR
June 21, 202310:58 AM ET
Former Special Counsel John Durham on Wednesday said FBI agents had “apologized” to him for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into former President Donald Trump and his campaign from 2016 to 2019, per his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.
Durham, who was appointed Special Counsel to investigate the origins of the investigation into Trump’s campaign – which later revealed that Trump had not colluded with Russia to win the election – interviewed FBI agents who were involved in the investigation. Those FBI agents were ashamed of their work on the investigation, according to Durham, who also said that several other agents had apologized to him for the FBI’s conduct. (RELATED: ‘Uncorroborated Intelligence’: Durham Report Torches FBI, DOJ For Handling Of Trump-Russia Probe)
“Let me give you some real-life views: I have had any number of FBI agents…who have come to me and apologized for the manner in which that investigation [Crossfire Hurricane] was undertaken. These are good, hard-working, decent people,” Durham said in response to a question asked by Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who asked about Durham’s opening testimony where he said that the conclusions of his report were “sobering.”
Durham noted another instance where FBI agents expressed recrimination for the investigation. In an exchange with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Durham said that one of the Supervisory Special Agents of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation “became emotional” when presented with a memorandum about the Hillary Clinton campaign’s efforts to promote the idea Russia was supporting Trump, which then-FBI Director James Comey did not share with the agents.
“We interviewed the first supervisor…the operational person. We showed him the intelligence information. He indicated that he’d never seen it before. He immediately became emotional. Got up and left the room with his lawyer. Spent some time there before he came back,” Durham said.
“He was ticked off, wasn’t he? He was ticked off because this was important information that he should have had working on the case…that the FBI Director kept from him while working on the investigation,” Jordan asked.
“The information was kept from him,” Durham replied.
The intelligence about the Clinton campaign’s promotion of the idea that Russia was supporting Trump was serious enough for then-CIA Director John Brennan to brief President Barack Obama about Clinton’s plan. That briefing was attended by then-Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Comey, with the intelligence being packaged into a ‘Referral Memorandum’ that he and then-Assistant Director Peter Strzok obtained.
Apart from agents involved in the case, Comey and Strzok, neither shared the information with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when seeking Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants for domestic surveillance of investigation targets nor shared them with government lawyers preparing warrant applications to the court, per testimony before the committee.
The results of Durham’s investigation were published in a report transmitted to Capitol Hill on May 15, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The report found that the Department’s decision to open the investigation into Trump failed to maintain “strict fidelity to the law.”
