CNN continued to pivot right during its coverage of Trump-appointed special counsel John Durham’s report on the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe. But when the Durham report was released on May 15, it became clear that the findings fell markedly short of right-wing media’s expectations: It did not produce bombshell revelations nor a litany of crimes. Instead, the report noted that the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation relied on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence” and argued that the investigation was politically biased. University of Michigan law professor Barb McQuade explained that the findings of the Durham report were simple: The FBI should have opened a preliminary, not a full, investigation. On the May 15 edition of his show, Tapper claimed that “to a degree, it [the report] does exonerate Donald Trump.” But this isn’t true; the report does not “exonerate” Trump (similar to how Muller’s report didn’t exonerate Trump).

Source: CNN May 16, 2023 20:52 UTC