The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
FBI accused of ‘plotting against’ Trump’s election
US: President accuses government agency of bias
Donald Trump has disputed findings by the Justice Department that former FBI director James Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe was not politically motivated.
The US president declared the FBI was biased “at the top level” and “plotting against my election”.
The department’s inspector general (IG) report, while critical of the FBI and Mr Comey personally, did not find evidence that political bias tainted the investigation of Mrs Clinton’s email practices in the months and days leading up to Mr Trump’s election.
But after tweeting that he did a “great service” to the nation by firing Mr Comey, Mr Trump marched outside to talk with Fox & Friends, claiming the report “totally” exonerated him, then pointing to accomplishments he said he has achieved and complaining about not getting proper credit.
Then he turned to other reporters and went over the same list.
On the inspector general report that found no political bias in the FBI’s final conclusions, he said: “The end result was wrong. There was total bias.”
“Comey was the ring leader of this whole, you know, den of thieves. It was a den of thieves,” he said.
Mr Trump’s comments followed the IG’s 500-page report that said Mr Comey was “insubordinate” in his handling of the Clinton investigation because he broke agency protocol.
The report also rebuked FBI officials for exchanging anti-Trump text messages during the 2016 campaign.
But it said: “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.”
Mr Trump’s supporters have argued the findings are proof of political bias at the FBI’s highest levels that then tainted the Russia investigation, first led by the FBI and now by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“Comey was the ring leader of this whole, you know, den of thieves”