Report rebukes Comey over Clinton email case
But Justice Department watchdog finds no evidence of political bias
WASHINGTON – Former FBI Director James Comey broke FBI and Justice Department protocol in his handling of the 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, but Comey was not motivated by political bias when he cleared her of wrongdoing, according to a Justice Department watchdog report Thursday.
“While we did not find that these decisions were the result of political bias on Comey’s part, we nevertheless concluded that by departing so clearly and dramatically from FBI and department norms, the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded. The 568-page report focused on the FBI’s handling of the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Comey wrote on Twitter that he thought the report’s conclusions were “reasonable,” even though he disagrees with some of them.
While Horowitz didn’t find political bias by Comey, he did uncover more anti-Trump emails from a pair of FBI officials who were involved in an extramarital affair.
The report said bureau lawyer Lisa Page wrote to counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok in a text message: “(Trump’s) not ever going to become president, right?” Strzok, who helped oversee the Clinton email investigation, replied, “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
Horowitz notified special counsel Robert Mueller in December about the anti-Trump texts because Strzok had become part of Mueller’s team on the Russia investigation. Mueller promptly removed Strzok from his staff. Page left Mueller’s staff before the texts became public.
Strzok’s attorney, Aitan Goelman, said the investigation “concluded that there is no evidence that the political The actor has been cast to play Jack Nicholson’s screen son, Danny Torrance, in the sequel to “The Shining.” McGregor will portray the now-grown son in the horror film “Doctor Sleep,” based on Stephen King’s best-selling novel. The 2013 book features Torrance all grown up and haunted by the tragic events in the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film. views of Special Agent Strzok and others in the FBI impacted the handling of the Clinton email investigation.”
The report characterized the politically charged text messages as “antithetical to the core values of the FBI.” Still, investigators “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed.”
“The conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation and sowed doubt about the FBI’s work,” the report concluded. “The damage caused by these employees’ actions extends far beyond the scope of the (Clinton) investigation and goes to the heart of the FBI’s reputation for neutral fact finding and political independence.”
The report did not address whether any of its findings would be referred to federal prosecutors for possible criminal action.
However, the findings related to text message exchanges involving Strzok, Page and three other bureau staffers were being passed on to the FBI for possible administrative action. Strzok and Page still work at the bureau.
Congress and the White House have anxiously awaited Horowitz’s report, which has taken about 18 months to complete and could affect Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that the report “reaffirmed” Trump’s suspicions about Comey’s conduct.
But Democrats said the report shows that Comey’s actions helped elect Trump, undercutting the president’s accusations that FBI and Justice Department officials were biased against him. Clinton has blamed her election defeat on Comey’s public disclosure of a reopening of the email investigation 11 days before the election.
“Director Comey had a double-standard: He spoke publicly about the Clinton investigation while keeping secret from the American people the investigation of Donald Trump and Russia,” said Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Judiciary Committee Democrat, and Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee.