After four years of work, the Durham Report the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation was released last week. And notwithstanding the objections of the New York Times and other partisans, the report was revelatory: the probable cause for opening the Russia collusion investigation was so flimsy that internal investigators had serious doubts and the Brits refused to even touch the case; the primary source for the famous Steele dossier was Igor Danchenko, previously suspected of working with Russian intelligence; the dossier itself was funded by none other than Hillary Clinton and the DNC. The case is convoluted and so over-saturated with petty politics that even legal experts have a hard time summarizing, but the most important takeaway remains crystal clear: the FBI acted negligently and with extreme political bias in their handling of what came to be called Crossfire Hurricane. How did we end up with institutions charged with fidelity to the law that Americans can no longer trust? Perhaps more importantly: how can we do better?
Andrew McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and the author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.