Trump reacts to Durham report: ‘Heavy price must be paid.’

Former President Trump Calls for Accountability in Response to Durham Report

By Randy DeSoto | May 15, 2023 at 5:42pm

Former President Donald Trump has responded to Special Counsel John Durham’s report on the Department of Justice’s and the FBI’s criminal investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign, calling for accountability.

Trump’s reaction comes after the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane in July 2016 to investigate the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia during the contest. The investigation was based on misinformation created by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

Durham’s report, released by the DOJ on Monday, concluded that “the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report.”

Trump reacted favorably to the report’s conclusions, stating that “there must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this.” He argued that “the national security implications of what they did are very grave.”

The report also revealed that senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information they received, especially information received from politically affiliated persons and entities.

Durham had been investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe since May 2019.

Trump also pointed out that the House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of then-Chairman Devin Nunes, discovered that the DNC and the Clinton campaign funded the creation of the Steele dossier. The FBI and the DOJ used that unsubstantiated document to obtain FISA warrants to spy on members of Trump’s campaign.

Durham’s report stated that “the Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence.”

Durham indicted three people during his investigation: former Clinton attorney Michael Sussmann in September 2021, Democratic political operative Igor Danchenko in November 2021, and former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith in August 2020. Sussmann and Danchenko were found not guilty in their trials, which both took place in the Democrat-dominated Washington, D.C. area. Clinesmith pleaded guilty in August 2020 to changing information on a FISA warrant application and received 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service.

Trump pardoned George Papadopoulos, Lt. Gen. (retired) Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort, all associated with the Trump campaign, who were strong-armed by the DOJ to plead guilty to process crimes, mostly to process crimes, when the campaign had not engaged in wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Democrats, the Clinton campaign, and members of the DOJ and FBI engaged in wrongdoing and got off scot-free. Many lost or were forced out of their jobs, but none were held to account.

At least Durham has now provided an official report chronicling the DOJ’s and FBI’s wrongdoing, which can be pointed to whenever anyone falsely claims it’s just stuff Trump made up.