Comey is chastised in report
WASHINGTON» The Justice Department inspector general on Thursday castigated former FBI Director James Comey for his actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation and found that other senior bureau officials showed a “willingness to take official action” to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.
The 500-page report, which documents major missteps in one of the most politically charged cases in the FBI’s history, provides the most exhaustive account to date of bureau and Justice Department decision-making throughout the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, particularly in the months just before she lost the presidential election to Trump.
The inspector general did not find evidence supporting asser-
tions made by the president and his allies that political bias inside the FBI rigged the case to clear Clinton, but the report cited numerous instances of unprofessionalism, bias and misjudgment that hurt the bureau’s credibility. In particular, the report singled out lead agent Peter Strzok as showing antiTrump bias that could have affected his thinking on the case during the immediate run-up to the 2016 election.
The report is a blistering rebuke of Comey, who has spent recent months on a book tour promoting his brand of ethical leadership. Inspector General Michael Horowitz accused Comey of insubordination, saying he flouted Justice Department practices when he decided that only he had the authority and credibility to make key decisions and speak for the agency.
Comey made a “serious error of judgment” in sending a letter to Congress on Oct. 28, 2016, announcing that he was reopening the investigation of Clinton’s use of the server while secretary of state, the report found, and called it “extraordinary that Comey assessed that it was best” for him not to speak directly with either the attorney general or the deputy attorney general about his decision beforehand.
Some senior bureau officials, the report found, exhibited a disturbing “willingness to take official action” to hurt Trump’s chances of becoming president.
Perhaps the most damaging revelation in the report is a previously unreported text message in which Strzok, a key investigator on the Clinton email case and the investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign, assured an FBI lawyer in August 2016 that “we’ll stop” Trump from making it to the White House.
Trump was “not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” the lawyer, Lisa Page, wrote to Strzok.
“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded. Page and Strzok were romantically involved and used their work phones to engage in long-running text discussions of various work and personal topics, according to people familiar with the case.
In a message posted to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, Comey wrote: “I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review.”