CNN'S Jake Tapper said Monday that the Durham report, which determined that the Trump-Russia investigation never should have been launched, is "devastating to the FBI," while acknowledging that the findings do to an extent "exonerate" the former president.
During his opening commentary on "The Lead with Jake Tapper," the CNN host addressed the highly anticipated report released Monday by Special Counsel John Durham, who determined that the Department of Justice and FBI "failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law" when it launched the investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion.
"For years, Donald Trump and his supporters pinned their hopes on the investigation by the former U.S. attorney for Connecticut, John Durham later named special counsel by AG Bill Barr, Trump and his allies arguing it would exonerate him from any hint of improper behavior regarding the Russian government’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election…" Tapper told his viewers.
READ DURHAM’S REPORT ON THE ORIGINS OF THE FBI’S RUSSIAN COLLUSION PROBE
"The report is now here, it has dropped, and it might not have produced everything of what some Republicans hoped for, [but] it is regardless devastating to the FBI and to a degree, it does exonerate Donald Trump," the CNN host said.
Fox News Digital obtained Durham’s 330-plus page report Monday afternoon after his years-long investigation into the origins of the FBI’s original investigation, known as "Crossfire Hurricane." That investigation looked into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
TRUMP SAYS THERE MUST BE A ‘HEAVY PRICE TO PAY’ FOR COMEY, DEMOCRATS AFTER RELEASE OF DURHAM REPORT
Durham's report revealed that the FBI spent years investigating alleged collusion between former President Trump and Russia with little merit, stating "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."
Durham said his investigation also revealed that "senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically-affiliated persons and entities" and that this information "in part triggered and sustained Crossfire Hurricane and contributed to the subsequent need for Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation."
Durham's report also called out past FBI leadership - specifically former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, writing that the FBI "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."
Reacting to the report later Monday, Trump called for Comey and Democrats to be held accountable for wasting years on an investigation that according to Durham, should have been launched.
"I, and much more importantly, then American public have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats — started by Comey," Trump told Fox News Digital. "There must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this."
Trump added that "the national security implications of what they did are very grave."
"It turned out to be a giant and very dangerous hoax," he said, adding that he would have "further comment in the near future."
The FBI addressed the report's findings in a statement, telling Fox News Digital that "the conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect."
Still, Durham said there is a "continuing need for the FBI and the Department to recognize that lack of analytical rigor, apparent confirmation bias, and an over-willingness to rely on information from individuals connected to political opponents caused investigators to fail to adequately consider alternative hypotheses and to act without appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy between a U.S. political campaign and a foreign power."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
