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NEW: Durham Reveals FBI Withheld Clinton’s Plan To Connect Trump To Russia From Agents On The Case

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Special Counsel John Durham said Wednesday that in 2016, intelligence suggesting Hillary Clinton had approved a plan to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia was not given to agents working on the Crossfire Hurricane case.

In Wednesday’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Durham detailed the findings of his investigation into the handling of intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign. This intelligence suggested that the Clinton campaign was planning to vilify Trump by tying him to Russia, a claim that was uncorroborated but caught the attention of then CIA Director John Brennan​.

The intelligence was deemed significant enough by Brennan to warrant briefings with then-President Barack Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and other top national security officials. The matter was also referred to then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, with the subject line: “Crossfire Hurricane.”

However, Durham said that the FBI did not act on this information. According to his testimony, a supervisory special agent of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, identified as Supervisory Special Agent Number One, was not aware of the intelligence. Upon learning about it, the agent reportedly became emotional, left the room with his lawyer, and was described as being “ticked off.”

“He was ticked off because this is something he should have had as an agent on the case,” Jim Jordan responded. “This important information that the director of the FBI kept from the people doing the investigation.”

WATCH:

Durham’s report further suggests that the FBI “failed to act on what should have been — when combined with other incontrovertible facts — a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.”

Durham stated in his report that the handling of the intelligence “amounted to a significant intelligence failure,” but not a crime. He further argued that whether or not the Clinton plan intelligence was based on reliable or unreliable information, it should have prompted FBI personnel to immediately undertake an analysis of the information and to act with far greater care and caution when receiving, analyzing, and relying upon materials of partisan origins​.

During the House hearing, Durham defended his investigation, saying, “At no time and in no sense did we act with a purpose to further partisan or political ends.” He stated that any suggestions to the contrary were “simply untrue and offensive,” and that his findings are “serious” and “deserve attention from the American public and its representatives.”


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