The FBI responded late this past Monday evening to Special Prosecutor John Durham's thorough and scathing report concluding that the Justice Department and the FBI "failed to fulfill their mission of strict fidelity to the law" when they launched the Trump-Russia investigation. In a statement to Fox News Digital, the agency flatly asserted that "dozens of corrective actions" had already been taken and implemented as a result of Durham's investigation.
"The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Prosecutor Durham examined was the reason the current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been avoided", FBI sources assured. "This report reinforces the importance of ensuring that the FBI continues to do its job with the rigor, objectivity and professionalism that the American people rightly deserve and expect," they added.
The Fox network accessed Durham's report this past Monday afternoon after a years-long investigation into the origins of the FBI's actions, known as the "Crossfire Hurricane." That investigation looked into whether there was coordination between the Trump with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Durham delivered his final report to the Department of Justice, which released it Monday afternoon. The report contains more than 300 pages.
"Based on our review of Crossfire Hurricane and related Intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to comply with their mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report," the report said.
Durham said his research also revealed that "the FBI's senior staff showed a serious lack of analytical rigor toward the information they received, especially information received from politically affiliated individuals and entities." "This information in part triggered and sustained Hurricane Crossfire and contributed to the subsequent need to Special Prosecutor Mueller's investigation", the report said. "In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump's political opponents."
