Letter: GOP twisting the Durham Report

Just as they did with the Mueller Report, KesRepublicans and the radical right media, including Michael Barone, are claiming that the Durham Report proves the FBI had no good reason to open its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. This is just not true. The investigation began because George Popadopoulus let slip to an Australian desliniplomat that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. When information on Hillary was released, the Australians notified the FBI.

The FBI wanted to know how Popadopoulus, or anyone else in theTrump campaign, could have known about the dirt on Clinton so they began surveillance of Popadopoulus. When Carter Page, who was already under FBI surveillance, began working for the Trump campaign and took a trip to Russia, that was when the FBI requested the FISA warrant.

That activity was the main driver for the FISA request. Although some material from the infamous Steele Dossier was used in the request, it was not the reason the warrant was granted. Both Page and Popadopulous were eventually convicted of perjury and later pardoned by Trump. In almost four years, John Durham found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the FBI and lost both cases he brought to court. Durham's report is his version of what he thought he would find, but couldn't. Michael Barone would have you believe the report is damning for the FBI, but it is no such thing.

Richard Keslinke

Algonquin