Former Special Counsel John Durham Opening Statement

thank you again good morning um chairman Jordan ranking member an Adler and members of this committee as the committee knows on May 13 2019 attorney general Barr directed me to conduct a preliminary review into certain matters related to Federal investigations concerning the 2016 presidential election campaigns that review subsequently developed into several criminal investigations and gave rise to my subsequent employment as special counsel in these matters many of the most significant issues documented in the report that we have written including those relating to lack of investigative discipline failure to take logistical logical investigative steps and bias are relevant to important National Security interests that this committee and American people are concerned about if repeated and left unaddressed these issues could result in significant National Security risks and further erode The public's faith and confidence in our justice system as we said in the report our findings were sobering and tell you having spent 40 years plus as a federal prosecutor they're particularly sobering to me a number of my colleagues who spent decades in the FBI themselves they were sobering while encouraged by some of the reforms that have been implemented by the FBI the problems identified in this report anybody who actually reads the report and the details of the report that documented portions of the report I think would find that um the problems identified in the report are not susceptible to overnight fixes as we said in the report they cannot be addressed solely by enhancing training or additional policy requirements rather what is required is accountability both in terms of the standards to which our law enforcement Personnel hold themselves and in the consequences they face for violation of laws and policies of relevance I'm here to answer your questions I appreciate the opportunity to I'll answer them to the best of my ability and I hope to be of service to your oversight function as I'm sure you know the Department of Justice has issued some guidelines as to what I'm authorized to discuss and those things that I am not authorized to discuss in this regard accordingly I'll refer principally to the report I do want to emphasize a few points at the outset however first I want to emphasize in the strongest terms possible that my colleagues and I carried out our work in good faith with integrity and in the spirit of following the facts wherever they lead without fear or favor at no time in no sense did we act with a purpose to further partisan a political lens to the extent that somebody suggests otherwise that's simply untrue and offensive second the finding set forth in this report are serious and deserve attention from the American public and its Representatives let me just briefly highlight a few of those for one we found troubling violations of Law and policy in the conduct of Highly consequential investigations directed at members of the presidential campaign and ultimately a presidential Administration to me it matters not whether it was a republican campaign or a Democratic campaign it was a presidential campaign our team comprise dedicated and experienced prosecutors and law enforcement agents who work day in a day a day out through the entire covet epidemic in the office trying to interview people all in an effort to try to get to those facts and the ground truth that such a group of people made these findings experienced FBI agents experienced prosecutors not people by and large from Washington but from other parts of the country the fact that these people made these findings as reflected in the report is of concern and should be of concern to any American who cares about our civil liberties the rule of law and the just and proportion application of the law to all of us whether we're friends who were foes the law ought to apply to everybody in the same way during our investigation we charge the former FBI agent who pleaded guilty to the felony offense of altering and fabricating a portion of a document used to obtain a court order of fisa order of a surveillance of the United States citizen which in our view is a significant problem several of the relevant fisa applications at issue in the crossfire investigation omitted references to what was clearly relevant and highly exculpatory information that should have been disclosed to the fisa court multiple FBI Personnel who signed or assisted in preparing renewal applications for that same fisa Warren acknowledged that they did not believe that the target Mr Page was a threat to National Security much less a knowing agent of a foreign power which is what the law requires it appears from our investigation that the FBI leadership dismissed those concerns another aspect of our findings concern the FBI's failure to sufficiently scrutinize information it received or to apply the same standards to allegations it received about the Clinton and Trump campaigns as our report details the FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele dossier the FBI relied on the dossier and fisa applications knowing there was a likely material originating from a political campaign a political opponent it did so even after the president United States the FBI and CIA directors and others received briefings about intelligence suggesting that there was a Clinton campaign plan underway to stir up a scandal tying Trump to Russia the accuracy the intelligence was uncertain at the time but the FBI failed to analyze or even assess the implications of the intelligence in any meaningful way when the FBI learned that the primary source of information for the Steele dossier which was basically the guts of the narrative about there being a well coordinated conspiracy involving Trump and the Russians when they learned that danchenko was the primary sub source for those reports is at the time when the FBI already knew that danchenko himself had previously been the suspect of a FBI Espionage investigation he was suspected of being a Russian asset and nonetheless they signed him up as a paid informant without further investigation of that Espionage concern to say nothing of resolving that Espionage matter before using denchenko and denchenko's information and when the FBI and special agent Mueller's office learned that Steele's primary subsource likely had gathered important portions the dossier information during travels to Russia with one Charles Dolan it inexplicably decided not to interview Dolan or investigate his activities finally I would like to add that Although our work exposed deep concerns concerning facts about the conduct of these investigations our report should not be read to suggest in any way the Russian election interference was not a significant threat it was nor should it be read to suggest that the investigation the investigative authorities at issue are no longer serve important law enforcement and National Security interests they do rather responsibility for the failures and transgressions that occurred here rest of the people who committed them or allowed them to occur again to my mind the issues raised in the reports serve close attention from the American people and their elected representatives here in Washington thank you Mr chairman thank you

Channel: C-SPAN

Views: 60,691

Keywords: John Durham, Corssfire Hurricane, House of Representatives, Judiciary, Justice, Trump, Russia, C-SPAN, CSPAN

Id: YtTTxWLMFnQ

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023