House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has written to Attorney General Merrick Garland raising questions about the FBI's involvement in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation.
Jordan's letter comes nearly three weeks after special counsel John Durham released a report saying the FBI lacked "actual evidence" to investigate Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, and relied too heavily on tips provided by Trump's political opponents to fuel the probe.
In his Thursday letter to Garland, Jordan requested information about how many FBI employees are involved in Smith's probe, whether investigators are relying on any material gathered before Smith's appointment, and whether any investigators previously worked on other matters concerning Trump.
Smith currently is investigating former Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election's results.
"The extent of the FBI's bias and reckless disregard for the truth, which Special Counsel Durham laid out in painstaking detail, is nothing short of scandalous,” Jordan wrote in his letter to Garland.
"The FBI has tried to dismiss the report's findings by claiming to have 'already implemented dozens of corrective actions' to prevent similar misconduct in the future. The FBI's window dressing is not enough."
Jordan said that Durham's report calls for "more accountability and reforms within the FBI."
"Accordingly, as Congress conducts oversight to inform these legislative reforms, we write to ensure the Justice Department act to preserve the integrity and impartiality of ongoing investigations from the FBI's politicized bureaucracy," Jordan wrote.
The lawmaker proceeded to remind Garland of Durham’s key findings:
- "The FBI did not possess any actual evidence of collusion before deciding to launch Crossfire Hurricane as a full investigation. The FBI appears to have disregarded this issue largely due to the personal and political biases against Donald Trump harbored by FBI personnel involved in the investigation.
- "The FBI failed to apply basic investigative techniques, appropriately assess the credibility of information it received, or adequately consider exculpatory evidence gathered during the investigation.
- "The FBI applied different standards for investigating information related to Donald Trump and information related to Hillary Clinton, rapidly opening an investigation into President Trump based on raw, uncorroborated information when it had not done so with Clinton.
- "The FBI disregarded 'highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source' that the purported collusion at the heart of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was a ploy by the Clinton campaign to divert attention away from Clinton's mishandling of classified information on her private server while serving as Secretary of State."
Reuters contributed to this story.
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