John Durham to testify in Congress TODAY on his scathing report blasting the FBI

Two major House committees will hear directly from Special Counsel John Durham this week following the release of his scathing report that found the Justice Department and FBI had no basis to launch the Trump-Russia investigation.

Durham was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019 to investigate misconduct related to the ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation into the now debunked Trump-Russia collusion allegations and concluded four years later that the FBI opened the flawed investigation “based on raw data”. , unanalyzed and unsubstantiated information.

On Tuesday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) led by Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, is holding a closed-door hearing with Durham. The House Judiciary Committee led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will host Durham in a public setting on Wednesday.

As part of the closed hearing, Turner told DailyMail.com the committee planned to work with Durham to identify legislative solutions to address systemic issues within the Justice Department.

Turner said the aspect of Durham’s report he found “most disturbing” is that it shows “wrongdoing at the FBI, the Department of Justice and concerns about the intelligence community itself”. .

“I’ve had personal conversations with John Durham that our goal…is not just to go through his report and the issues he identifies, but to get his recommendations on what changes should be made.”

Turner said it was important to push for solutions now, as the committee is in the process of renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – which is up for renewal by the end of the year. ‘year.

He added that another major concern is that the DOJ and FBI have used opposition political campaign research “to politicize government office in order to negatively impact an opposition candidate.”

He hopes to work with Durham and the committee to put remedies in place as soon as possible before the next election.

“It’s not just a problem of bad people in powerful positions that have corrupted those positions. It’s also that our rules and our laws need to be changed, so that these mechanisms can no longer be used in this way to really harm the American public.

The hearings come as the FBI investigates Biden for alleged mishandling of classified documents, and just days after Trump appeared in Miami court and was arrested on 37 federal charges related to files found in Mar -a-Lago.

Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley are also urging Durham to provide answers about why top FBI officials – including former Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe – refused to cooperate with his investigation into the incident. opening by the agency of the investigation into the Trump-Russia collusion.

Durham issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants and conducted hundreds of interviews with key officials, including Hillary Clinton and her campaign associates, Trump campaign officials and hundreds of FBI officials involved – but notably some of the top FBI officials at the time refused to cooperate. with the Durham probe.

Durham did not interview James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strozk, Bill Preistap, Kevin Clinesmith – who was convicted by Durham of unlawfully altering an email – and Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, whom Republican senators call ” weird”.

“As we continue to review the report, we have noticed that several former high-level government officials directly involved with Crossfire Hurricane have refused or partially refused to cooperate with your investigation,” Johnson, R-Wis., and Grassley, R- Iowa, wrote Durham in a letter last month.

The senators point to a footnote in the report stating that “certain personnel” of the FBI’s counterintelligence division “refused to cooperate” with the investigation.

FBI management stepped in to “urge these individuals to agree to be interviewed,” the report also notes.

“It seems odd that individuals should be allowed to avoid full cooperation with your office, especially given your power to compel testimonies and records,” they wrote.

Republicans are pressing Durham to provide information about whether Durham issued subpoenas to those specific people and whether the DOJ “impeded” any of his office’s investigative practices.

Durham is due to testify before the House Standing Select Committee on Intelligence on June 20

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, had confirmed to DailyMail.com that he would ask Durham to appear before his committee

While the Durham report does not recommend any “overall change” in Justice Department guidelines or policies, it does indicate that there is a “continuing need” for agencies to recognize the lack of “analytical rigor” and the apparent “confirmation bias”.

The FBI responded to the report in a statement to DailyMail.com saying there are now “corrective actions” in place that would have prevented the “missteps in 2016”.

“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 have now been in place for some time,” the FBI said. at DailyMail.com.

“Had these reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been avoided. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring that the FBI continues to do its job with the thoroughness, objectivity, and professionalism that the American people rightly deserve and expect.