Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43) was arguably one of the loudest and most persistent Democratic voices in Congress that accused former President Donald Trump of colluding with Russia to help in winning the 2016 presidential election.

Waters even once issued a "guarantee" that such "collusion" had occurred, but that claim has now been thoroughly contradicted by the findings of Special Counsel John Durham, Fox News reported.

Following several years of investigation, Durham concluded that there was never any "actual evidence of collusion" between Trump and Russia to support the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation that was based entirely on "raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence" manufactured by and with the approval of 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Waters Demanded Congressional Investigation of Trump Collusion With Russia

In January 2017, less than two weeks after then-President Trump was sworn into office, Rep. Waters filed legislation that demanded Congress launch its own investigation into the allegations of collusion between Trump and Russia.

"Given the extensive ties between Russia and individuals associated with Trump, we cannot ignore the possibility that there may have been collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign," the congresswoman said in a statement at that time. "Both during his campaign and since his election, Donald Trump has surrounded himself with people who have extensive ties to Vladimir Putin and the Russian government."

"We must find out just how involved the Trump campaign was in Russia’s interference in our election. That is why I am introducing a resolution to focus on what Congress must do to thoroughly investigate Trump’s connections with Russia and whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the outcome of the election," Waters added. "We cannot allow any investigation led by the Republicans in Congress to whitewash Trump’s ties to Russia or avoid examining these critical questions."

Waters Issues "Guarantee" of Evidence of Russian Collusion

Fox News noted that Rep. Waters was already calling for the impeachment of President Trump within months of his taking office over the allegations of Russian collusion, and even went so far as to issue a "guarantee" of his guilt in that regard in September 2017.

During remarks delivered at a civil rights town hall at that time, according to The Washington Free Beacon, Waters sought to explain why she was pushing so hard for Congress to impeach Trump over his alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Here you have a president who I can tell you and guarantee you is in collusion with the Russians to undermine our democracy," Waters said at that time. "Here you have a president who has obstructed justice, and here you have a president that lies every day."

"I Will Always Believe This"

Fast-forward to March 2019, when the investigation of President Trump by Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded without uncovering any of the alleged evidence of collusion with Russia, and Rep. Waters seemingly dismissed Mueller's conclusions and vowed that "This is not the end of anything" during an interview on MSNBC.

Indeed, The Washington Times reported in December 2019 that the California congresswoman remained convinced of Trump's guilt and said as much during a CNN interview, even as she acknowledged that she had no actual proof to support her assertions of collusion.

"I had done some research, and I knew about [Trump’s] alignment with Putin, I knew about [Paul] Manafort and what the relationship was and the fact that he had been sent there by Putin, in essence, to head up the president’s campaign," Waters said. "Because I believe, even though I don’t have the facts to prove it, I believe that Putin wanted to lift the sanctions."

"He’s always wanted to lift these sanctions that were placed on him because of his interfering with, and incursion into Crimea. And so I believe that they wanted to elect President Trump and Trump -- I will always believe this -- that he agreed that if he got elected that he would lift those sanctions," she continued. "He would like to do it; he’s not been able to do it, but when [Republicans] talk about, ‘we’re just making things up’ and he talks about this as a ‘witch hunt,’ there are too many facts."

As for those who objected to her incessant demand that Trump be impeached for colluding with Russia, Waters added, "They don’t have an appreciation for the Constitution and the fact that the Constitution gives us the responsibility to impeach when we see this president or any president who is not good for the country -- who’s undermining our country, who’s putting us in danger, who’s aligning himself with a foreign country to interfere in our election. Those are facts."

Waters' Claims Contradicted by Durham Report

Except, as thoroughly explained in Special Counsel Durham's 316-page report, there never was any evidence of collusion or a legitimate basis for the FBI's investigation as the entire narrative had been a hoax deliberately concocted by the Clinton campaign to distract the American public from her own scandals.

"In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump's political opponents," Durham concluded with regard to the FBI's probe. "The Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence."

In other words, the FBI pursued an investigation of Trump on baseless allegations that leadership knew were unsupported by actual facts and, in the process, "failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law."