Special Counsel John Durham, testifying before members of the House Judiciary Committee, described his findings in a report concerning the origins of the FBI's investigation into claims of Russian collusion in former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, called his findings "sobering."
"Many of the most significant issues documented in the report that we have written, including those relating to a lack of investigative discipline, failure to take logistical, logical investigative steps, and bias are relevant to important national security interests that this committee and the American people are concerned about," said Durham in his opening remarks.
Such issues, left unaddressed, "could result in significant national security risks and further erode the public's faith and confidence in our justice system," said Durham. "As we said in the report, our findings were sobering, and I tell you, having spent 40 years-plus as a federal prosecutor, they were particularly sobering to me and a number of my colleagues who present decades in the FBI themselves."
However, he said that the problems identified in the report are not easily fixed "overnight" and "cannot be addressed solely by enhancing training or additional policy requirements," but "what is required is accountability, both in terms of the standards to which our law enforcement personnel hold themselves and in the consequences they face for violation of laws and policies of relevance."
He also insisted that he and his colleagues carried out their work in good faith "with integrity and in the spirit of following the facts, wherever they led, without fear or favor."
Durham also denied that he and his investigators acted in a partisan way, and to suggest otherwise is "simply untrue and offensive."
Further, he said the findings in the report are "serious and deserve attention" from the American public and its representatives.
"We found troubling violations of law and policy in the conduct of highly consequential investigations directed at members of the presidential campaign, and ultimately a presidential administration," said Durham. "It matters, not whether it was a Republican campaign or Democrat campaign; it was the presidential campaign."
And the facts "should be of concern to any American who cares about our civil liberties," he said. "Our report details the FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele dossier. The FBI relied on the dossier in FISA applications, knowing there was likely material originating from a political campaign, a political opponent."
Durham also stressed that even though the investigation exposed deep concerns about the conduct of the investigators, it should not be read to suggest that Russian election interference wasn't a significant threat or that the investigative authorities no longer serve an important law enforcement function or to benefit national security interests.