Catch the Crucial Durham Discovery.

Special Counsel Report Reveals DOJ and FBI Misconduct in Crossfire Hurricane Investigation

John Durham’s Conclusion: Corrupted Hearts and Minds Must Be Cured

The special counsel report released on Monday revealed extensive evidence of misconduct by the Department of Justice and FBI in the launch and handling of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The report also provided overwhelming proof of partisan motives and double standards. However, the most scandalous revelation was John Durham’s conclusion that the targeting of a political opponent cannot be prevented without a curing of the corrupted hearts and minds of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Durham’s 306-page report opened with an executive summary that highlighted the results of the special counsel’s four-year investigation into the intelligence activities and investigations arising out of the 2016 presidential campaigns. While calling the findings “sobering,” Durham emphasized that he does not recommend any wholesale changes in the guidelines and policies.

However, Durham made a damning indictment of the DOJ and FBI when he stressed that “the answer is not the creation of new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old.” He continued, justice “comes down to the integrity of the people who take an oath to follow the guidelines.” Ultimately, “the promulgation of additional rules and regulations to be learned in yet more training sessions would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise if the FBI’s guiding principles of ‘Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity’ are not engrained in the hearts and minds of those sworn to meet the FBI’s mission of ‘Protect[ing] the American People and Uphold[ing] the Constitution of the United States.'”

The Catalog of Malfeasance is Not the Most Terrifying Revelation

While the report detailed every misstep and condemned every inexplicable and unreasonable action, the most terrifying revelation was Durham’s warning of corrupted hearts and minds, unfaithful to the people and their Constitution. Durham’s decision to open and close the report with homage to Attorney General Edward H. Levi, who restored order after Watergate, gives profound meaning to his reminder that “the integrity of the people who take an oath to follow the guidelines and policies currently in place, guidelines that date from the time of Attorney General Levi,” is what ensures “the rule of law is upheld.”

For all the misconduct the special counsel exposed, it was Levi’s warning that Durham left us. And that, I fear, is the most significant revelation to come from the investigation: that after four years of inspecting the underbelly of the FBI, Durham saw a creature reminiscent of the one running wild under Nixon.

Can the Honorable and Faithful Men and Women of the FBI Revolt Against Corrupted Leaders?

Unfortunately, Durham’s words are unlikely to resonate with Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, who stand idly by while history repeats itself with the favoritism previously shown to Hillary Clinton now being bestowed on Hunter Biden and the Biden family. However, the special counsel’s entreat could still succeed from the bottom up if the honorable and faithful men and women of the FBI join the ranks of whistleblowers and revolt against those leaders corrupted in heart and mind.

• Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent.
• She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
• Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor.
• She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time.
• As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children.
• Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland.