Former spy chief John Ratcliffe said that he, former Attorney General William Barr, and now-special counsel John Durham “unanimously agreed” last year that intelligence did not show Trump-Russia collusion, and the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was launched without proper justification.
Ratcliffe, former President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, criticized the Crossfire Hurricane inquiry during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News, contending the current Durham criminal inquiry would expose problems with it.
“I do expect that the Durham report will be another scathing recounting of abuses — abuse of power at the FBI. And I say that because I have reviewed the intelligence with John Durham and Bill Barr,” Ratcliffe said. “Last summer, we went over the intelligence, and we all unanimously agreed that there was no intelligence from the intelligence community that reflected actual, real Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — but there was intelligence that it was created by the Hillary Clinton campaign — and that there was no proper predicate for Crossfire Hurricane to begin.”
Ratcliffe added: “I really do expect that the Durham report will talk about that abuse of power because I know that intelligence.”
GARLAND DOESN’T PROMISE TO PROTECT DURHAM INVESTIGATION
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s December 2019 report criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the FISA warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page and for the bureau’s reliance on the Democratic-funded discredited dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele. Declassified footnotes from Horowitz’s report indicate that the bureau became aware that Steele’s dossier may have been compromised by Russian disinformation, and FBI interviews show Steele’s primary subsource undercut the credibility of the dossier.
Horowitz also wrote that Crossfire Hurricane was “opened for an authorized investigative purpose and with sufficient factual predication.” But Durham, along with Barr, disagreed with the assertion that the opening of the investigation was justified.
“Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,” Durham said in a rare public statement in late 2019.
Robert Mueller’s report concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion,” but the special counsel investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.”
“I think, very clearly, it was political — we saw that in 2016,” Ratcliffe said of the FBI’s actions on Sunday, adding, “The inspector general, the independent arbiter for the Justice Department, found that the FBI’s senior leadership had lied. We saw that the FISA court called out the FBI. Obviously, we know that an FBI lawyer lied to the FISA court to perpetuate the investigation into the Trump campaign.”
Ratcliffe said: “I do think it’s important for people to have faith in the FBI as an institution, for there to be accountability — and, hopefully, the Durham report will bring that.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray agreed in 2020 that there had been at least some illegal surveillance. After Horowitz’s report was released, the FISA court issued a rare public order criticizing the FBI’s handling of the Page applications as “antithetical to the heightened duty of candor.” The Justice Department told the FISA court last year that at least the final two of four Page FISA warrants were “not valid.”
Durham’s criminal inquiry has netted one guilty plea so far, with former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith admitting to editing a CIA email in 2017 to state that Page was “not a source” for the CIA. Clinesmith was sentenced to probation.
Durham announced last month he was resigning as the U.S. attorney for Connecticut following Biden asking all Senate-confirmed federal prosecutors to hand in their resignation letters. Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss was an exception, with acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson asking him to stay on as he investigates Hunter Biden.
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Merrick Garland, Biden’s pick for attorney general, declined to promise the Senate Judiciary Committee during a confirmation hearing that he would protect Durham’s investigation nor make his report public, though he said he didn’t currently have any reason to think it wasn’t the right move to keep the prosecutor from continuing his work. Garland repeatedly provided the same answer in written responses.
“I do not know anything about that investigation except what I have read in the press,” Garland claimed. “My view about every investigation is that I have to know the facts before I can make these kinds of decisions or commitments. As I said at the hearing, however, I understand Mr. Durham has been permitted to remain in his position and to continue his investigation. And I presently have no reason to think that that was not the correct decision.”
