Trump falsely claims FBI report showed 'effort to overthrow government' despite it debunking his conspiracy theory

Report found that FBI did not engage in politically motivated investigation, but that officials had repeatedly downplayed exculpatory evidence

(AP)

Donald Trump has praised the Department of Justice inspector general report, claiming that the report showed an effort to overthrow the government — even though the report insisted the opposite.

The president falsely claimed during a White House meeting that the report — which found evidence of mistakes by American officials, but debunked claims of a conspiracy against the Trump campaign —had shown an effort to "overthrow" the US government, and that it was "far worse" than he expected.

"It is incredible. Far worse than I would've ever thought possible. And it's an embarrassment to our country, it's dishonest," Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump continued for a while, before adding: "This was an overthrow of government. This was an attempted overthrow, and a lot of people were in on it and they got caught."

The highly anticipated report was released on Monday, and largely threw cold water on conspiracy theories that the US intelligence officials had mounted a concerted politically-motivated effort to undermine Mr Trump's 2016 campaign. The 434-page report released by Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz said that the FBI had an "authorised purpose" when it initiated its investigation into the Trump campaign, known as Crossfire Hurricane.

The report rejected that the case was opened to target Mr Trump for political reasons, and contradicted claims that informants were used in violation of FBI rules.

But, the report did find that, as the investigation proceeded, FBI officials had repeatedly decided to emphasise information seen as damaging to Mr Trump and his associates, while downplaying exculpatory evidence.

The report has been seen by conservatives and liberals as victory for their causes, with Mr Trump leading his side as Democrats claimed the report showed they were right to pursue investigations into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.

"Clearly, there was a legitimate, factual basis; in fact the FBI had a moral imperative to begin this investigation," said Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal, speaking to the Washington Post. Mr Blumenthal emphasised that the report found that claims the Trump campaign advisers were illegally surveilled or entrapped were false.

Attorney general William Barr, who was chosen by Mr Trump and has been seen as a strong ally, said in a statement that he disagreed with one key finding from the report. In the statement, Mr Barr said that the FBI had launched its campaign into the Trump campaign "on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken. It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory."

Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale also claimed the report showed that the president was targeted for investigation by Barack Obama's administration.

"This report confirms significant misconduct and wrongdoing by the Obama-Biden FBI. The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid for foreign sources to manufacture fake dirt on President Trump and his campaign, resulting in the now-debunked Steele Dossier," Mr Parscale said in a statement. "These politically motivated accusations were used to justify the surveillance of a U.S. presidential campaign by the FBI, which falsified information and concealed evidence that didn’t fit their narrative. Democrats and the media weaponized this as part of their Russia Collusion Hoax for more than two years and they are still at it today.”