Durham going after reason FBI launched debunked 'Russia collusion'

The drama is playing out against the clashing approaches of the two Justice Department officials tasked with scrutinizing the Russia probe's origins and unearthing any misconduct: Durham, the Sphinx-like prosecutor with a reputation for toughness whose work continues, and Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice inspector general, whose December 2019 report faulted the FBI's handling of the Russia probe but nonetheless concluded that it was launched in good faith.

In response to Horowitz's report, the special counsel announced that his office had "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 stressed that, unlike Horowitz, his "Investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department" and has instead obtained "Information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.".

According to the official narrative, while top-ranking FBI officials shared and discussed the Steele dossier with everyone but Crossfire Hurricane team members, the counterintelligence division decided to investigate the Trump's campaign's potential ties to Russia on July 31 based on an unrelated tip from Alexander Downer, the Australian diplomat.

Although Horowitz took the FBI at its word that Steele played no role in triggering Crossfire Hurricane, he did so after documenting multiple instances of FBI lies - including about Steele's role in the probe.

These abuses included embellishing Steele's established reliability as an FBI source; omitting information that undermined the credibility of Steele's main source, Igor Danchenko, and the fanciful claims he told Steele about prostitutes and billion dollar bribes; concealing that Steele was a source for a Yahoo News article that the FBI also cited as source material; omitting that both Page and Papadopoulos had made exonerating statements to FBI informants; and, most notably, omitting that the Clinton campaign was paying for Steele's services.

According to the FBI's prepared talking points, the Senate was erroneously told that Steele's main source Danchenko "Did not cite any significant concerns with the way his reporting was characterized in the dossier." Danchenko, the FBI additionally claimed, also "Maintains trusted relationships with individuals who are capable of reporting on the material he collected for Steele." The FBI also said that its discussions with Danchenko "Confirm that the dossier was not fabricated by Steele."

The FBI resorted to more deception: In an explosive Jan. 31 statement aimed at thwarting the Nunes memo's release, the FBI claimed that it had "Grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

https://www.wnd.com/2022/01/durham-going-reason-fbi-launched-debunked-russia-collusion/