Eli Lake: Trump, Russiagate, and the End of FBI Credibility

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

This is the audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Our topic was the release of and reaction to the Durham report, an investigation into the FBI's probe of possible collusion between former President Donald Trump's campaign and Russian government actors during the 2016 election. Our guest was Eli Lake, host of the Re-Education podcast and a contributor to Commentary and The New York Sun.

"If the Durham report shows anything, it is that the FBI leadership bent over backward to protect [Hillary] Clinton's campaign while launching a full investigation into [Donald] Trump's campaign on the thinnest of pretexts," he wrote in a recent article for The Free Press.

Lake says the 306-page report from special counsel John Durham, released to the public on May 15, is a "black eye for the FBI," which he says was sloppy, inconsistent, and possibly "helped inject what may have been Russian disinformation into the American political discourse."

Related episodes and links:

• "Should Anyone Be Offended by Kanye West? Live With Eli Lake"
• "Jacob Siegel: 'Disinformation' Is the Hoax of the Century"
• "Beverly Gage: The Dark Truth About J. Edgar Hoover's FBI"
• "From Russiagate to the MyPillow Guy, Let's Stop With Electoral Conspiracy Theories"
• "How the United States Can—And Cannot—Help Iranian Protesters"

• "The Deep State's 'Political Assassination' of Michael Flynn Was an Epic Abuse of Power"

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