Durham 'skewed his findings' and Republicans 'misrepresent the facts' for Trump: Former CIA director

Former CIA Director John Brennan blasted both former special counsel John Durham and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee for twisting the actual findings of the report for Donald Trump.

"When I read the report, when it came out, I think my reaction was much like others. I was very — it was underwhelming," said Brennan. "The Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz did a good job pointing out some of the misteps, and the tactical missteps the FBI made. And also the Senate Intelligence Committee did a review of this."

He explained that the investigation in 2016 was right to search for what the Russians were doing and what the Trump administration was doing in support of the Russians.

"But John Durham did not reveal anything new," Brennan said. "In fact, from my reading of the report, particularly those aspects I have first-hand knowledge about, I think he did intentionally misrepresent and skew his findings in order to support the basic premise of his investigation, which was what Bill Barr and Donald Trump wanted was to try to discredit the investigation that was underway into the 2016 presidential election interference."

What Durham testified today, he continued, did nothing other than promote unsubstantiated Republican conspiracy theories.

"He went to great lengths to try to continue to cast his findings that were basically favorable to the GOP talking points, and I think were trying to avoid the bottom line, which was that the government and the FBI did its job in terms of trying to understand what the Russians were doing," he said. "And so, again, the fact he only had two indictments, and both of them failed to convict, I think it just shows that they're really grasping for whatever straws they could find. But as you point out, the litany of language and arguments over the past several years, I think, really does leave one to understand just how damaging these types of politicized efforts on the part of the Trump administration have been."

Later in the conversation, Brennen blasted the Republicans on the committee again, saying they "badly misrepresent the facts and the truth. And I'm sure a lot of people across this country were listening to that hearing. And if the continued lies come out, it really does skew and then change the views of Americans towards our institution of government. And I feel, you know, the responsibility of our public officials really is to try to at least discern the truth, but there was no effort on the part of Republicans today to try to get to the truth. They just wanted to twist words and twist facts as a way to allow their talking points to continue, I think, to give Donald Trump a pass, which is really, really concerning given that he continues to pursue the office of the presidency of the United States."

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