Report rebukes Comey’s actions
Watchdog finds he broke protocol, but not because 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 Clinton of criminal wrongdoing, according to a longawaited report released Thursday by a watchdog official for the Justice Department.
“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 in the report. The 568-page document 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 says bureau lawyer Lisa Page wrote to counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok in a text message: “(Trump’s) not ever going to become president, right?” In response, Strzok, who helped oversee the Clinton email investigation, wrote: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
Horowitz acknowledged in December that his inquiry into the Clinton case had unearthed anti-Trump text messages between the two. Horowitz notified special counsel Robert Mueller about the texts because Strzok was on Mueller’s team for the separate
Russia investigation. Mueller promptly removed Strzok from his staff. Page, who had also been on Mueller’s staff, left before the texts became public.
Strzok’s attorney, Aitan Goelman, said the investigation “concluded that there is no evidence that the political views of Special Agent Strzok and others in the FBI impacted the handling of the Clinton email investigation.”
“As the report notes, Special Agent Strzok in particular was consistently thorough and aggressive, sometimes to the point that put him at odds with senior officials at the Department of Justice,” Goelman said. “While pundits and politicians are using this matter to advance their agendas, the truth about Special Agent Strzok’s character and professionalism is found in the fact that every witness asked by the OIG said that Strzok’s work was never influenced by political views.”
The report characterized the 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 inspector general’s report did not address whether any of its findings would be referred to federal prosecutors for possible criminal action. Findings related to text message exchanges involving Strzok, Page and three other bureau staffers, however, were being passed to the FBI for possible administrative action. Strzok still works at the bureau, but Page left last month.
Congress and the White House have been awaiting Horowitz’s report, which has taken about 18 months and could affect Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
President Trump is likely to seize on the report to argue he was right to fire the former FBI director last year. At the time of his firing, Comey had been leading an investigation into Russian meddling in the election.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that the report “reaffirmed” Trump’s suspicions about Comey’s conduct.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he was “alarmed, angered, and deeply disappointed by the Inspector General’s finding of numerous failures by DOJ and FBI” in the Clinton inquiry.
“This is not the way normal investigations are run,” the South Carolina Republican said.
But Democrats say the report shows 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 Oversight Committee Democrat.
The report blasts Comey for deviating from DOJ guidelines when he held a news conference July 5, 2016, to announce there would be no criminal charges against Clinton and to accuse her of carelessness in her use of the private server. Typically, the FBI’s role would be limited to referring its findings to the attorney general. It would then be up to prosecutors to decide whether to bring charges. The Justice Department — not the FBI — would typically make any public announcements about the case.
Horowitz wrote that Comey acted “unilaterally” and outside the scope of his authority when he announced the closing of the Clinton investigation.
The report “reaffirms the president’s suspicions about Comey’s conduct and political bias among some members of the FBI.” Sarah Sanders White House spokeswoman
Separately, the report rebukes Comey for sending a letter to Congress in late October 2016 telling lawmakers the FBI had reopened its investigation of Clinton. The FBI had found evidence of previously undiscovered emails on the computer of former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was then married to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
The FBI found no evidence to charge Clinton, and Comey announced — just two days before the election — that the case was closed.
Comey is a witness in the Russia investigation being led by special counsel Mueller. Mueller is looking into whether Trump’s firing of Comey in May 2017 was an effort by the president to obstruct justice by derailing the FBI’s inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
The inspector general’s report could have seriously undercut Comey’s credibility as a witness in the Mueller investigation if it had found that he lied about his actions in the Clinton case or that his actions were politically motivated. It’s less damaging to Comey that the report found that his main offense was violating procedural norms.