Tapper introduced CNN’s senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, and said, “Durham has finally released its report, concluding that the FBI, in its view, should never have launched a full investigation into possible links between Donald Trump, his campaign, his advisers and allies, and Russia during the 2016 election.”
The report is over 300 pages, Evan. He worked there for almost four years. What else was there to discover? Tapper questioned Perez.
“Well, Jake, at the end of the day, John Durham thinks the FBI was justified in doing at least some lower-level exploratory investigations. The FBI had a lot of information under their control, but they consistently claim that they don’t think they did,” Perez shot back.
Wasn’t that a defense? Tapper asked.
Perez responded by saying, “Of course, we know that, you know, there was a lot of suspicion, partly because the former president hired someone in Paul Manafort as campaign chairman, who was deeply indebted to a Russian oligarch, someone who was very close to the Kremlin, that would have been exculpatory, that would have explained some of their suspicions about Donald Trump, about certain people surrounding his campaign investigation.
The bottom line, he says, is that based on the evidence gathered during the many extensive and costly federal investigations into these matters, including the current investigation, neither U.S. law enforcement nor the intelligence community appeared to have any actual evidence of collusion in their possession at the start of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. He says he studied this for four years. He looked at a wide variety of subjects. Many mistakes were made by the FBI.
After that, Perez read a statement from FBI Director Chris Wray saying the agency had already “done a lot of reform” in response to Durham’s criticism.
Perez added, “Confirmation bias is what Durham calls it,” and Tapper said, “A lot of people who follow law enforcement might not be surprised that in general there are sometimes an excess of zeal and an effort to.”
Tapper agreed, “Yeah, confirmation bias.”
In response to a frequent accusation regarding the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, Perez clarified, “No political bias.
Presidents and presidential candidates are not the only ones experiencing this. You know, it happens to the little guy too,” Perez continued as Tapper spoke.
To the young people of the street. Nor do they receive four-year, multimillion-dollar investigations that would clear them, Tapper added. Nevertheless, being accountable is a good thing, right?
Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a former Republican congressman, was Tapper’s next guest. “Let’s start with what you thought of the Durham report. And on the face of it, I mean, there’s nothing, no criminality that he identified, but it’s extremely devastating to the FBI,” Tapper said. Kinzinger.
You hit the nail on the head when you talked about confirmation bias, Kinzger claimed, adding, “Yes, it is. After all, 2016 has begun. As far as I remember, that’s the first presidential candidate to show support for Vladimir Putin Paul Manafort concerns were present.
You may recall that the Republican Party dropped its support for Ukraine from its platform at the Republican National Convention. So I think a lot of people ask, “What’s going on here?” As for the former president’s continued sympathies for Vladimir Putin, my fellow party members and I had serious reservations.
But the actions of the FBI should not be dictated by this. The FBI must prevent the realization of their biases, whether they are against this or something else. And maybe the Independent Counsel’s report will bring some changes to the FBI. Hopefully some of that has already been done.