By Allan Lengel
Republican Congress members criticized an FBI official after she said at a Tuesday hearing that she hadn’t had time to read the Durham report that was highly critical of the bureau for launching a probe into any connection between Trump and Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign.
“I’m honestly speechless at this point in time,” Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, told Jill Murphy, assistant director of counterintelligence at the FBI, according to The Hill.
Murphy explained: “I just haven’t had time.”
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) responded when she said she hadn’t been briefed on the report.
“Why is that not a matter of such import that you would want urgently to understand what the special counsel concluded about the work of the counterintelligence division? In such a grave case?” Bishop asked.
She said intended to read it, according to The Hill.
Special Counsel John Durham’s report echoed many of the criticisms reflected in the Inspector General’s 2019 report. But while Durham’s report concluded that the FBI should never have launched the investigation, the IG found that the FBI was justified in doing so.
