'Total weaponization': Trump declassifies documents related to 'Crossfire Hurricane' Russian investigation

US President Donald Trump declassified the 'Crossfire Hurricane' investigation files

US President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum to declassify the FBI files related to the 'Crossfire Hurricane' linked to the investigation of Russia's alleged involvement in 2016 Trump campaign.

“Frankly, the FBI should be ashamed of themselves and so should the Department of Justice and so should Biden,” said Trump while singing the declassification orders.

“This was total weaponization. It’s a disgrace…but now you’ll be able to see for yourselves” he also added.

“We believe that it’s long past time for the American people to have a full and complete understanding of what exactly is in those files,” White House staff secretary Will Scharf said.

Decoding 'Crossfire Hurricane'

The "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation, originally launched as a counterintelligence inquiry into potential ties between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, was taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller.

It was launched after a meeting in July 2016 between the then CIA Director John Brennan and former President Obama where he briefed Obama on a proposal from one of Hillary Clinton's campaign foreign policy advisors "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service" claimed Fox News.

Clinton was the Democrat nominee for president that year.

The probe sought to determine whether individuals associated with Trump's campaign were knowingly or unknowingly coordinating with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In 2017, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over the investigation.

By April 2019, Mueller’s report found no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia. Following this, Attorney General Bill Barr appointed John Durham to investigate the origins of "Crossfire Hurricane."

Durham's 2023 report concluded that the FBI lacked evidence to justify the investigation and failed to follow legal procedures.

He also revealed that the FBI ignored intelligence suggesting Clinton's campaign was behind a plan to link Trump to Russia, potentially distracting from her own controversies.

Durham criticized the FBI for not incorporating this intelligence into their decision-making, suggesting that had they done so, the investigation might have been handled more critically.

In the end, the investigation into Trump-Russia collusion did not find any criminal conspiracy, and Durham’s findings raised concerns about the handling of the investigation and political interference.