Many Twitter users called the 2016 Russia probe a “witch hunt,” urging the former president to sue the FBI and Department of Justice.
Former President Donald Trump’s supporters were quick to celebrate after special counsel John Durham’s report concluded that the FBI never should have investigated Trump’s alleged involvement with Russia during the 2016 election.
Dozens of Trump’s allies and prominent GOP figures on Monday referred to him as a “crime victim” and urged him to sue the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI for “violating the Constitutional protections” of the former president, who is seeking the 2024 Republican nomination.
Durham’s newly released report on his investigation into whether Trump and Russia conspired to influence the 2016 election dealt a blow to the FBI. The report found that the bureau had no “actual evidence of collusions” when it initiated Crossfire Hurricane. Durham was appointed in October 2019 after Trump pressed former Attorney General William Barr to investigate the FBI probe.
Durham said that the FBI should never have opened its investigation and that the origins were based on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence.” His findings come after escalating scrutiny of the FBI and its investigations in recent years. After the bureau executed a search warrant for classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, many conservatives accused the bureau of abusing its powers.
Durham noted in the 300-plus-page report: “At the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.
