Durbin Statement On DOJ’s Report On The FBI’s 2016 Russia Investigation

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today released the following statement after the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report examining the FBI’s 2016 investigation into coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia’s election interference efforts:

“The non-partisan Inspector General’s report concludes that the FBI’s 2016 investigation into coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia’s election interference efforts was opened for an authorized investigative purpose with sufficient factual basis. The Inspector General also found no evidence that the Russia investigation was influenced by improper motivation or political bias against President Trump – a common talking point that the President and his allies continue to parrot. And nothing in the Inspector General’s report calls into question the unanimous conclusion of the intelligence community that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

“The Inspector General did find errors in how FBI case agents carried out certain investigative steps, including applications for FISA surveillance on Carter Page. And while the Inspector General found that greater supervisory oversight was warranted, he found no evidence that senior officials knew about or sanctioned these errors or omissions. This highlights what Democrats have long argued: that reforms and independent oversight are needed in the FISA process.

“Republicans were promising this Inspector General report would be a ‘deep-state’ bombshell. That turns out to be ‘fake news.’”

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