Justice report condemns EX-FBI chief over Clinton email inquiry
Watchdog finds James Comey’s actions had no political motivation
Justice Department’s watchdog has criticised the FBI and former director James Comey for their handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, but found his actions were not motivated by political bias.
The inspector general’s report said Mr Comey, who announced in the summer of 2016 that Mrs Clinton would not be charged with any crime, was insubordinate and departed from normal protocol numerous times.
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 Comey said he disagrees with some of the conclusions of the report.
But he said in a tweet he respects the inspector general’s work and believes the conclusions are “reasonable”. He said “people of good faith” can see the “unprecedented situation differently”.
US president Donald Trump has looked to the report to provide a fresh line of attack against Mr Comey and his deputy Andrew Mccabe as he claims a politically tainted bureau tried to undermine his campaign and, through the later Russia investigation, his presidency.
The White House said the report reaffirmed Mr Trump’s “suspicions” about Mr Comey’s conduct and about the “political bias among some of the members of the FBI”.
But the nuanced findings provide no conclusions to support Republicans and Democrats who want to claim total vindication.
The conclusions were contained in a 500-page report that documents in painstaking detail one of the most controversial investiga the tions in modern FBI history.
The Justice Department report separately revealed how the FBI, which for decades had strived to stand apart from politics, came to be entangled in the 2016 presidential election.
The report alleges a long series of misjudgments that Democrats will probably use to support their belief that Mrs Clinton was wronged by the FBI.
The watchdog faults Mr Comey for his unusual 5 July 2016 news conference at which he disclosed his recommendation against bringing charges. Charging announcements are normally made by the Justice Department, not the FBI, and cases that end without charges are rarely discussed publicly.
In this instance, Mr Comey said the FBI found Mrs Clinton and her aides to be “extremely careless” in handling classified material, but “no reasonable prosecutor” could have brought a case against her.
At a congressional hearing in May last year, Mr Comey said he was concerned the Justice Department could not “credibly” announce the end of its investigation, in part because then-attorney general Loretta Lynch held a meeting on her plane with former president Bill Clinton. Also criticised was Mr Comey’s decision, against the recommendation of the Justice Department, to reveal to Congress the FBI was reopening the investigation following the discovery of new emails.
The report was released as the Trump administration announced a 25 per cent tariff on up to $50 billion (£37.3bn) worth of Chinese imports yesterday, instantly escalating a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
China has said that it will retaliate with the same level of tariffs in response, rattling financial markets.
Mr Trump has vowed to fulfil his campaign pledge to crack down on what he contends are China’s unfair trade practices and efforts to undermine US intellectual property. “You know we have the great brain power in Silicon Valley and China and others steal those secrets,” he said.