Back in 2017, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed she had “cold hard evidence” demonstrating collusion between the Trump family and the Russian state.
At the time, Pelosi was spreading the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. She said she witnessed the Trump family willingly making attempts to collude with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
For Pelosi, this represented a high form of treason, due to Russia’s perception as a foreign power that is hostile to the United States.
Pelosi’s Trump-Russia Collusion Crusade
The former House Speaker even went as far as to suggest that Republicans enabled the alleged Trump-Russia assault on American democracy. She believed the alleged Trump-Russia collusion was the largest attack on American democracy since Watergate.
After the release of the #DurhamReport, we now have absolute proof Nancy Pelosi is a liar.
Pelosi: 'Cold hard evidence' of collusion between Russia and the Trump f… https://t.co/3gTsydvbBE
— Jim Pfaff (@jimpfaff) May 16, 2023
Due to the perceived gravity of the situation, she called to vote on an “outside independent kit mission” to determine the level of involvement Trump’s campaign had in teaming up with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Pelosi believed such a move would prevent the Russians from carrying out foreign influence operations in the future. Since then, Pelosi has insisted that Trump colluded with Russia to shape the outcome of the 2016 election.
Durham Drops the Hammer
However, Special Counsel John Durham published a 300-page report debunking the Trump-Russia collusion narrative on May 15, 2023.
In the report, Durham concluded, based on his assessment of the FBI’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane and other intelligence activities, that the Justice Department and FBI did not do their due diligence.
John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years examined the FBI's investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign was conspiring with Moscow, condemned the bureau but had little new information in his report. https://t.co/clvWPnDQdE
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 15, 2023
On top of that, the investigation discovered that senior FBI agents did not exercise “analytical severity towards the data they obtained, especially from folks with political stakes.”
In this case, the Durham report made a reference to Fusion GPS’ “pee dossier,” which was funded by the failed campaign of Hillary Clinton.
This dossier argued there was collusion between Trump and the Russian state, which the FBI subsequently used to investigate Trump.
This article appeared in TheDailyBeat and has been published here with permission.
