Ex-FBI boss was ‘insubordinate’
Watchdog rebukes former FBI head for handling of Clinton email investigation
The U.S. Justice Department watchdog says former FBI director James Comey was “insubordinate” in his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the 2016 presidential election. But it also concludes there was no evidence that Comey or the Justice Department were motivated by political bias in their oversight of the case. Comey’s successor says nothing in the report impugns the integrity of the FBI workforce as a whole.
WASHINGTON — In a stinging rebuke, the U.S. Justice Department watchdog declared Thursday that former FBI director James Comey was “insubordinate” in his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation in the explosive final months of the 2016 presidential campaign. But it also found there was no evidence that Comey’s or the department’s final conclusions were motivated by political bias toward either candidate.
President Donald Trump had looked to the much-anticipated report to provide a fresh line of attack against Comey and the FBI as Trump claims that a politically tainted bureau tried to undermine his campaign and, through the later Russia investigation, his presidency. He is likely to use the harsh assessment of Comey as validation for his decision to fire him, an act now central to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the president sought to obstruct justice.
Clinton, on the other hand, has long complained that she was the one whose election chances were torpedoed by Comey’s announcements about her email practices, in the summer and then shortly before the election.
The report’s nuanced findings — that the FBI repeatedly erred, though not for politically improper reasons — complicated efforts by Republicans and Democrats alike to claim total vindication.
The conclusions were contained in a 500-page report that documents one of the most consequential investigations in FBI history and reveals how the bureau, which for decades has endeavoured to stand apart from politics, came to be entangled in the 2016 presidential election.
The report also underscores efforts by senior FBI and Justice Department leaders in the final stages of the presidential race to juggle developments in the Clinton investigation — she had used private email for government business while secretary of state — with a separate probe into potential co-ordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. The Russia investigation, though diverting bureau resources and attention away from the final stages of the Clinton probe, was unknown at the time to the American public.
Comey, whom Trump fired shortly after taking office, bore the brunt of the report’s criticism. It says the FBI director, who announced in July 2016 that Clinton had been “extremely careless” with classified material but would not be charged with any crime, repeatedly departed from normal Justice Department protocol. Yet it does not secondguess his conclusion that Clinton should not have been prosecuted — despite assertions by Trump and his supporters that anyone less politically connected would have been charged.
It also disputed the Trump talking point that the FBI favoured Clinton over him, saying: “We found no evidence that the conclusions by the prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations; rather, we determined that they were based on the prosecutors’ assessment of the facts, the law and past department practice.”
Still, Trump supporters quickly focused on the report’s recounting of anti-Trump text messages from two FBI officials who worked the Clinton probe and later the Russia case, including one in which an agent says, “We’ll stop it” with regard to a possible Trump win.
The report suggests that text from Peter Strzok, who was later dropped from Mueller’s team, “implies a willingness to take official action to affect the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.” It did not find evidence that those views seeped into the investigation.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the report “reaffirmed the president’s suspicions about Comey’s conduct and the political bias amongst some of the members of the FBI.”
Current FBI director Chris Wray told reporters the FBI accepted the report’s findings and was making changes, including requiring further training for FBI employees and reemphasizing the importance of objectivity.
Wray said the report addresses a specific set of facts and the actions of a handful of officials. He said “nothing” in the report “impugns” the integrity of the FBI workforce as a whole.
In a New York Times opinion piece released after the report, Comey said he disagreed with some conclusions but respected the watchdog’s work.
The inspector general faulted Comey for his unusual July 5, 2016, news conference at which he disclosed his recommendation against bringing charges, even though cases that end without prosecution are rarely discussed publicly. Comey did not disclose to then-attorney general Loretta Lynch his plans to make such an announcement.
“We found that it was extraordinary and insubordinate for Comey to do so, and we found none of his reasons to be a persuasive basis for deviating from well-established Department policies in a way intentionally designed to avoid supervision by department leadership over his actions,” the report says.
Also criticized was Comey’s decision, despite the discouragement of the Justice Department, to reveal to Congress that the FBI was reopening the investigation following the discovery of new emails.
The FBI obtained a warrant nine days before the presidential election to review those emails, found on the laptop of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, and ultimately determined there was nothing that changed its original conclusion.