Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in opening remarks during special counsel John Durham's report was "flawed" and at the end of the day, his investigation into the origins of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation never accomplished what it was seeking.
"He cannot dispute a single conclusion in the [Robert] Mueller report," Nadler said. "He cannot prove a magnificent deep state conspiracy, and he cannot say that the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's many ties to Russia never should have happened."
But instead of "owning up to his failure," the report "doubles down on theories that lost spectacularly before two unanimous juries," said Nadler. "The report also references classified material that has been called likely disinformation to lay out a series of accusations against the former president's perceived enemies."
The report, in addition, works by "swiping a Republican boogeyman and hiding inconvenient truths and footnotes," said Nadler. "The Durham report gives Donald Trump one last talking point. It did not have to be this way."
Durham, he added, was a "well-respected career prosecutor" at the outset of his investigation, but his report ended in being a political exercise that operated with ethical ambiguity and existed to perpetuate Donald Trump's unfounded claims."
As a result, the investigation "did real damage to a department that is still recovering from the excesses of the Trump administration," Nadler said.
"Do not be misled." He added. "Former President Donald Trump is not a victim. He did this to himself. For all of its flaws, Durham's report does not show that anyone else is responsible for the president's legal woes past, present, or future. Anyone who tells you otherwise is simply making it up."