Special Counsel John Durham recommended to Congress that the Department of Justice (DOJ) rules be revised to result in the dismissal of FBI agents who engage in lying and abuse of the government’s surveillance powers during sensitive investigations.
Durham’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday came in the wake of a report on his assessment of the FBI’s handling of the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation he released in May. While acknowledging instances of misconduct that were either wrongful or “probably criminal,” Durham also noted that prosecuting these actions in a court of law would pose significant challenges.
“The real difficulty, in my view, is trying to figure out how to hold people accountable for their conduct. It’s not a simple problem to solve,” he said.
In his report, he extensively documented numerous instances of misconduct, which included the repeated utilization of false, debunked, and unverified information. Additionally, there were instances of dismissing exculpatory information and a failure to interview crucial witnesses. All of the actions collectively advanced an investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The misconduct, among other significant issues, led to the illicit surveillance of Carter Page, an aide to the Trump campaign. The FBI conducted surveillance on Page’s electronic communications based on a FISA warrant that was obtained using fabricated allegations.
The false allegations were pushed into the FBI by operatives who were financially supported by the campaign of Trump’s opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But Durham also found that top FBI officials at the time were aware that the allegations made by Clinton’s campaign were not true.
“There were identified, documented, significant failures of a highly sensitive, unique investigation that was undertaken by the FBI,” Durham testified.
“I think the investigation clearly reveals that decisions that were made were made in one direction. If there was something that was inconsistent with the notion that Trump was involved in a ‘well-coordinated conspiracy’ with the Russians and whatnot, that information was largely discarded or ignored and I think, unfortunately, that’s what the facts bear out.”
He went on to explain why he decided not to bring any charges against the officials who likely broke the law, noting that he was simply following the DOJ guidelines that say a prosecutor should only bring charges if he’s confident he could prove them beyond a reasonable doubt, secure a conviction on trial, and have it upheld on appeal.
“There’s conduct that was probably criminal, but you couldn’t prove it. And that’s true here. It appears in other instances as well,” he said.
