Trump hails Durham report slamming FBI over Russian collusion probe

‘It’s a great vindication, it feels good!’ Donald Trump hails John Durham report slamming FBI for pursuing baseless Russian collusion theory – and blames sore-loser Hillary for fueling false rumors

Donald Trump has responded to Justice Department special counsel John Durham’s report on the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, saying the findings vindicate his claims of baseless persecution.

‘It’s a great vindication and it feels good, and the report has been widely praised,’ Trump told Newsmax in a phone interview on Tuesday night, his first televised interview since Durham issued his report on Monday.

‘All of these people are — I guess you could call it treason. You could call it a lot of different things. But this should never be allowed to happen in our country again,’ added Trump.

The former president when on to heap blame his 2016 election opponent, Hillary Clinton, for the controversial FBI probe into his own campaign.

‘This was really started by, when she lost the election,’ said Trump. ‘They call this a big, big surprise, and they didn’t know what to say. And they said, Let’s blame it on Russia. Somehow somebody came up with the idea let’s blame her loss on Russia.’

‘This was really an excuse for why she lost the election. She blamed it on Russia. And it’s very sad, very very bad for our country,’ added Trump.

Donald Trump has responded to Justice Department special counsel John Durham’s report on the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, saying the findings vindicate his claims

In his report, Durham noted that he interviewed Clinton as part of his probe into her campaign’s purported effort to tie Trump to Russian election interference, but found no ‘provable criminal offense’ on the part of the Democratic candidate.   

Durham’s 306-page report is refocusing negative attention on one of the most politically significant investigations in FBI history: the probe into whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was conspiring with Russia to tip the outcome of the election.

The findings aren’t flattering for the FBI, with Durham asserting that the agency rushed into the investigation without an adequate basis and routinely ignored or rationalized evidence that undercut its premise. 

The report catalogs a series of errors – though many had already been documented years ago by a separate Justice Department inspector general report. The FBI says it’s taken several dozen corrective steps on its own.

Trump has long branded the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, which the bureau code-named Crossfire Hurricane, as a politically motivated ‘witch hunt’, a label he has also applied to a myriad of other criminal and civil investigations targeting himself and his business dealings.

Developing story, more to follow. 

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