5 findings of the Durham Report: No criminal misconduct, 'confirmation bias'
3. Crossfire Hurricane investigators withheld the Clinton campaign’s plan to ‘stir up’ Trump-Russia scandal
Durham quoted from a letter compiled by then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe asserting: “In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee.”
The Central Intelligence Agency informed FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok of “Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server” in a document titled The Referral Memo. Strzok made national headlines as unearthed text messages revealed his disdain for then-candidate Trump, his supporters and his desire to use his position to assist in preventing Trump from winning the 2016 presidential election.
As part of the investigation, Durham’s office probed whether “the FBI disclosed the contents of the Clinton Plan intelligence” to attorneys “working on FISA matters related to Crossfire Hurricane.” As discussed in the report, “The Office showed portions of the Clinton Plan intelligence to a number of individuals who were actively involved in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Most advised they had never seen the intelligence before, and some expressed surprise and dismay upon learning of it.”
The report described how “after reading it, Supervisory Special Agent-1 became visibly upset and emotional, left the interview room with his counsel, and subsequently returned to state emphatically that he had never been apprised of the Clinton Plan intelligence and had never seen the aforementioned Referral Memo. Supervisory Special Agent-1 expressed a sense of betrayal that no one had informed him of the intelligence.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
