After Special Counsel John Durham’s long-awaited report was made public this week, House Republicans demanded action, claiming that federal intelligence and agencies had been “weaponized” against political foes like former President Donald Trump.
Jim Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, invited Durham to address the panel’s special subcommittee on government weaponization the next week. The Ohio Republican, who along with other Republicans claimed the research demonstrated Trump was a political target, is now calling for accountability.
“Where’s the accountability for this? Who’s going to be held accountable? These are the questions we’re going to continue to ask,” Jordan said.
Similar sentiments were made by numerous other Republicans, The Hill reported:
“The long-awaited Durham Report confirmed what the American people already know; that individuals at the highest levels of government attempted to overthrow democracy when they illegally weaponized the federal government against Donald J. Trump,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik said.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said: “They took the entire country through this, impeachment, everything else when we knew the FBI never should have done this from the very beginning.”
Based on the report’s conclusions, Rep. Dan Crenshaw of the House Intelligence Committee declared that there must be consequences. “This report demonstrates how unelected, subversive actors within the highest levels of our government sought to destroy a duly-elected president they hated. They weaponized a lie – knowing the media would breathlessly regurgitate that lie – in order to take Donald Trump out of the White House,” Crenshaw said.
Durham’s report could have devastating effects on individuals who are named in it, including prison time.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, claimed that the alleged targeting of former President Donald Trump gives many Americans cause to doubt future elections and governmental institutions and that criminals need to be put behind bars.
“I mean, that’s all this was. They just did not like the fact that a political outsider had a legitimate shot at becoming president of the United States. One of the other things, too, from the report that stands out is that they continued this after President Trump was elected. What’s your response?” Newsmax host John Bachman asked Tuberville, Mediaite reported.
“Well, they don’t like, the swamp does not like any outsider whatsoever. And, you know, it’s just a shame people don’t go to jail for this. There’s a whole list of people that lied about this or some Congress people that lied about this,” Tuberville replied.
“And, oh, we’ve got Russia collusion information, which is the biggest problem I can’t go to. I can’t even talk about it. You know, it’s so bad. But if people don’t go to jail for this, American people should just stand up and say, ‘Listen, enough’s enough,’” he added.
Durham discovered that the FBI began looking into Trump before the 2016 election using “uncorroborated intelligence” and that agents consistently failed to uphold “strict fidelity to the law” throughout the investigation.
The FBI replied shortly after the report became public by admitting that some mistakes were committed in 2016. The FBI also acknowledged the veracity of Durham’s findings.
“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,” it added.
The Daily Caller highlighted some significant revelations regarding Hillary Clinton within the report:
The report noted that the FBI received intelligence that Hillary Clinton’s campaign approved “a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” specifically one that involved “tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee” to distract the public from her email scandals. It notes that President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey were personally briefed on Clinton’s scheme, known as the “Clinton Plan” in the report, by CIA Director John Brennan, who recorded mentioning the plan in his handwritten notes.
The “Clinton Plan” was obtained by the FBI while it was relying on the “Steele Dossier,” a discredited report of lurid allegations of Trump’s personal sexual activity, which the FBI knew was being funded and promoted by the Clinton campaign, according to the report. Durham quotes information from a meeting between the Dossier’s author, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, and FBI agents, as well as texts between FBI officials, to demonstrate that the agents knew the evidence was connected to Clinton.
According to Durham’s investigation, the FBI and US Department of Justice wasted little time in looking into Trump, and their behavior was a “notable departure” from how they rejected attempts to look into allegations about the Clinton campaign.
According to Speaker McCarthy, Republican lawmakers were aware of the things that he said are “so appalling.”
