Comey revisited

Right call

Regarding “Report rips Comey in Clinton probe” (Page A1, Friday), the story featured a detailed exposition of the results of the inspector general’s investigation of how the FBI handled the probe into then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a private server to send and receive classified and sensitive government documents.

Boiled down into simple, understandable terms, what the IG found was that even as there were serious lapses in judgment and behavior, Comey, his team and the FBI more generally did not play partisan politics in conducting their work and came to legally proper, defensible judgments about Clinton’s culpability (she had none), and the re-opening of the investigation just 11 days before the November 2016 election. In other words, while the process had its flaws, its outcomes were consistent with the law. That is no different from noting that the home team won in spite of making errors in the field.

From a political standpoint, the IG report eviscerates the president’s oft-repeated, year-long claims of “crooked, lying Hillary” and “Lock her up.” Just as important, the report makes clear that even though serious lapses within the FBI occurred, cannot be papered over and must be corrected, the general public can trust that the outcome of the Clinton investigation was untainted by partisan behavior. That is the ultimate bottom line. Marty Adams, Houston