CNN’s Jake Tapper slammed the FBI for the “devastating” Durham Report which concluded the agency had no evidence to investigate the Trump-Russia collusion allegations.
Speaking to the network on Monday night, Tapper said the report had, to some extent, exonerated former President Trump.
He said: ‘It may not have produced everything some Republicans were hoping for, it’s still devastating for the FBI and to some extent exonerates Donald Trump.’
Tapper later added, “It’s possible the FBI had legitimate reason to be concerned and it’s also possible that some people in the FBI got ahead of themselves on their skis and weren’t as professional as they were.” they should have been.”
Durham criticized the agency in its report for acting on “raw, unanalyzed and unsubstantiated intelligence.”
Special Counsel John Durham released his long-awaited report on Monday
Tapper called the FBI report ‘devastating’
In an embarrassing twist, the CNN host said the recently released report helped exonerate Trump, after years of frequently defending the Russian collusion narrative.
Tapper has publicly stated that he is not a member of any political party, but his political comments often show a tendency to align with CNN’s liberal orientation.
In 2018, Tapper pressed Senator Mark Warner to prove that the Trump campaign had accepted Russian help to win the 2016 presidential race.
Warner had cited a Senate special committee report that indicated US intelligence findings that Russia tried to interfere with the 2016 election.
Tapper urged Warner to reveal whether any American aided or participated in this alleged collusion, asking if Russia did so “with the assistance or participation of any American, particularly and including those who are in the orbit of the Trump campaign”.
The former president called Tapper a “flank” after Tapper kicked his White House aide out for sharing pro-Trump talking points.
The Durham Report summarized findings on whether the Trump campaign in 2016 colluded with Russia to meddle in the election outcome.
He ultimately concluded that the Justice Department and the FBI had “failed to fulfill their mission of strict fidelity to the law” when they launched their investigation.
Writing in his report, Durham said: “Based on the evidence gathered from the multiple, exhaustive and costly federal investigations into these matters, neither U.S. law enforcement nor the intelligence community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion. in their holdings at the start of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
Crossfire Hurricane was the internal code name for the FBI investigation launched in 2016.
The report includes scathing language saying that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications opened by the FBI as part of Crossfire Hurricane were not created as part of a mission of “strict loyalty to the law “.
FBI personnel working on the FISA requests “showed, at best, a cavalier attitude toward accuracy and completeness” and “ignored important requirements” on several occasions, Durham says.
Special Counsel John Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr (left) to investigate misconduct related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
Durham (pictured) was appointed in 2016 to investigate allegations surrounding the 2016 election
The FBI at the time Crossfire Hurricane opened was led by former Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
While the report does not recommend any “overall change” in Justice Department guidelines or policies, it does say there is a “continuing need” for agencies to recognize the lack of “analytical rigor” and the “bias of confirmation” apparent.
In a statement on Monday, the FBI said: ‘The conduct in 2016 and 2017 reviewed by Special Counsel Durham was the reason current FBI management had already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which are now in effect. place for some time.
“Had these reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been avoided.”
Former President Trump celebrated the report’s findings in a post on his Truth Social account on Monday afternoon.
He posted: ‘WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes that the FBI should never have launched the Trump-Russia investigation!’
Trump had repeatedly denounced the Russia investigation, calling it a “witch hunt” over the years.
Tapper had previously come under fire after a guest on his show claimed former President Trump had ‘radicalized more people than ISIS’ – and the presenter remained silent throughout.
