OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republicans are sounding off following the release of Special Counsel John Durham’s final report into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville declared the alleged targeting of former President Donald Trump gives many Americans reason to question future elections and government agencies and said people need to go to jail.
“I mean, that’s all this was. They just did not like the fact that a political outsider had a legitimate shot at becoming president of the United States. One of the other things, too, from the report that stands out is that they continued this after President Trump was elected. What’s your response?” Newsmax host John Bachman asked Tuberville, Mediaite reported.
“Well, they don’t like, the swamp does not like any outsider whatsoever. And, you know, it’s just a shame people don’t go to jail for this. There’s a whole list of people that lied about this or some Congress people that lied about this,” Tuberville replied.
“And, oh, we’ve got Russia collusion information, which is the biggest problem I can’t go to. I can’t even talk about it. You know, it’s so bad. But if people don’t go to jail for this, American people should just stand up and say, ‘Listen, enough’s enough,'” he added.
Durham found the FBI used “uncorroborated intelligence” when it launched its investigation into Trump before the 2016 presidential election and that agents failed repeatedly to maintain “strict fidelity to the law” throughout the probe.
Soon after the report was made available to the public, the FBI responded by acknowledging there were several errors made in 2016. The bureau also conceded that the findings in Durham’s report are accurate.
“This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect,” it added.
The Daily Caller noted crucial findings in the report about Hillary Clinton:
The report noted that the FBI received intelligence that Hillary Clinton’s campaign approved “a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” specifically one that involved “tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee” to distract the public from her email scandals. It notes that President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey were personally briefed on Clinton’s scheme, known as the “Clinton Plan” in the report, by CIA Director John Brennan, who recorded mentioning the plan in his handwritten notes.
The “Clinton Plan” was obtained by the FBI while it was relying on the “Steele Dossier,” a discredited report of lurid allegations of Trump’s personal sexual activity, which the FBI knew was being funded and promoted by the Clinton campaign, according to the report. Durham quotes information from a meeting between the Dossier’s author, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, and FBI agents, as well as texts between FBI officials, to demonstrate that the agents knew the evidence was connected to Clinton.
Durham’s report also found that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice wasted little time to investigate Trump and that there was a “notable departure” from the way it resisted efforts to investigate claims against Clinton’s campaign.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that Republicans knew about the things that were “so appalling.”
“They took the entire country through this, impeachment, everything else, when we knew the FBI never should have done this from the very beginning,” McCarthy said.
