As RedState reported, the long-awaited John Durham special counsel report on FBI and DOJ misconduct regarding the Trump-Russia investigation has finally been released to the public. Despite years of government stonewalling and calls from Democrat politicians to never let it see the light of day, the message of the report is clear: The federal government grossly abused its power in targeting Donald Trump over supposed Russian collusion.
Sen. Mike Lee put out a thread summarizing what was found and why it should disturb every American, even those who may be predisposed to not support Trump.
2. The LEAST one can say of it is that it involved a malicious use of federal law-enforcement officers to conduct a contrived investigation utterly lacking any valid, factual foundation from the very beginning. That is itself incredibly troubling—and also unconstitutional.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 15, 2023
4. So make no mistake—this can’t be dismissed as mere carelessness or even a severe example of garden-variety misconduct. No—this is as corrupt and as subversive of the Constitution as it gets.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 15, 2023
6. When federal law-enforcement agencies can undertake such a brazen effort to frame someone they don’t like to throw the outcome of an election—and then remain largely protected for seven years thereafter—popular sovereignty in America is under serious attack.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 15, 2023
The top line of the Durham report is incredibly simple. Namely, there was zero evidentiary basis for the FBI to pursue what would become Crossfire Hurricane, the infamous Trump-Russia investigation that was headed up by disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok. There was no hook, no justification, and no excuse for continuing to hound Trump throughout not only his 2016 candidacy but years into his presidency as well.
Despite knowing there was nothing to investigate, he FBI continued to push forward anyway until eventually, former FBI Director James Comey and the rest of his underlings got what they wanted: The Robert Mueller special counsel.
That was always the end goal. To ensure that Trump, even after he was elected and it became obvious no evidence of collusion existed, would be hobbled by an intrusive, headline-producing special counsel. In the end, the FBI succeeded in its quest. Mueller spent two years investigating the then-president only to find nothing improper but a few silly accusations over mean tweets. Meanwhile, congressional members like Rep. Adam Schiff lived on television, promoting the idea that they had indisputable evidence that collusion existed.
As Lee notes, from the very beginning, there was no probable cause, and Crossfire Hurricane was a blatant violation of the US Constitution and government protocol that exist within the FBI and DOJ. Further, the Utah senator nails it by pointing out that this was always about electoral interference. That was the goal from the word go, to diminish the Trump administration to the point that winning re-election in 2020 would be nearly impossible.
What makes this all the worse is that no one will be held accountable. There will be no indictments of government officials who propagated this travesty of justice. Why? Because the federal system has been set up to protect itself. FBI agents and DOJ officials can quite literally frame a president and never run afoul of any specific law because they have placed themselves above the law. It should not be that way.
Understand that the only thing stopping the FBI from doing this exact same thing to any one of us is boredom. We just aren’t important enough. But the ability to continue to abuse government power still exists in its entirety. Certainly, current FBI Director Christopher Wray has no desire in reforming the bureau, and AG Merrick Garland has spent his time playing bodyguard for President Joe Biden. Is it any wonder no one trusts American institutions anymore? And that’s a sad thing to have to say because Americans should be able to trust that law enforcement will do the right thing. Unfortunately, that trust is no longer warranted.
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