Special counsel John Durham concludes FBI never should have launched full Trump-Russia probe

Special counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI should never have launched a full investigation into connections between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, according to a report compiled over three years by the Trump-administration appointee and released on Monday.

Durham's 300-plus page report also states that the FBI used "raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence," to launch the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation into Trump and Russia but used a different standard when weighing concerns about alleged election interference regarding Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The special counsel, however, did not recommend any new charges against individuals or "wholesale changes" about how the FBI handles politically charged investigations, despite strongly criticizing the agency's behavior.

"Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the (Justice) Department and FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report," Durham wrote.

The report also concludes that "at least on the part of certain personnel intimately involved in the matter" there was "a predisposition to open an investigation into Trump."

Durham's findings that the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign should not have happened are at odds with a previous Justice Department inspector general investigation into the FBI's Russia probe, which identified problems with the investigation but concluded in December 2019 there was sufficient justification to open the inquiry.

Attorney General Merrick Garland sent Durham's report to congressional lawmakers and released the report on Monday.