Key Takeaways from the Durham Report

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Key Takeaways from the Durham Report
In yesterday’s BRIGHT I highlighted the news that the Durham report was released. Durham argued that there was no evidence to support the collusion claims in the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, known as Crossfire Hurricane, adding that had the FBI followed its own procedures, the bureau “would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject.”

Now that the smart folks have reviewed the 300-page report, there are a few takeaways. Selected from Just the News:

• United Kingdom intelligence service officials were unwilling to aid in the investigation, contending that it was devoid of predicating evidence.

• Victoria Nuland, who served as undersecretary for Political Affairs at the Department of State, and is one of that agency's "most experienced Russian observers," told Durham's team she "never saw any U.S. government proof of the allegations contained in the Steele reporting regarding Trump and Russian officials, and further stated that to her recollection no information regarding a well-coordinated conspiracy between Trump and the Russians had ever come across her desk, with one exception."

• "The FBl's actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server," the report concluded.

• "The speed and manner in which the FBI opened and investigated Crossfire Hurricane during the presidential election season based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence also reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign," Durham wrote.

• Before handing over their materials to law enforcement, Fusion GPS and Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann approached a media outlet to secure coverage of the materials.

• Articles by The New York Times, Slate, and Mother Jones regarding the Trump-Russia collusion narrative were cited by the report for the inaccurate information they published. Durham noted that some reports by the Times were debunked by Strzok, while others, such as those by Slate and Mother Jones, were based on information the Clinton campaign was pushing regarding the Alfa Bank allegation.

Finally…

"This report does not recommend any wholesale changes in the guidelines and policies that the Department and the FBI now have in place to ensure proper conduct and accountability in how counterintelligence activities are carried out…the answer is not the creation of new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old," he wrote.