• The Department of Justice's inspector general released the findings from an internal investigation into former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
• The Office of the Inspector General found four instances during which it said McCabe "lacked candor" when discussing his decision to authorize disclosures to the media about the FBI's investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.
• The report concluded that "McCabe’s decision to confirm the existence of the [Clinton] Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote … in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception."

The Department of Justice’s inspector general released on Friday findings from an internal investigation into fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year as the Office of the Inspector General was putting together the report, which centers on his approval of disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's Hillary Clinton email probe.

The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, concluded in Friday’s report that McCabe was not forthcoming during his office's review. When Horowitz informed the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility about his findings last month, it recommended Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire McCabe, which Sessions then did last month. McCabe's ouster came two days before he was set to retire.

The Wall Street Journal article at the center of the OIG's inquiry into McCabe was published on October 30, 2016, two days after then-FBI Director James Comey announced in a letter to Congress that the bureau was reopening its investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server.

The article was a highly detailed account of internal strife within the top ranks of the DOJ about how to proceed after FBI agents investigating former New York congressman Anthony Weiner discovered 650,000 emails on his laptop that could have been sent to or from Clinton's private email server.

The reporter who wrote The Journal's article, Devlin Barrett, was in touch with two top FBI officials on the phone two days before the story broke, according to text messages released in February. The officials were FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who often worked with McCabe, and then-FBI spokesman Michael Kortan.

While law-enforcement officials often speak to the press on background in order to provide more complete details about an ongoing story, they are prohibited from revealing information about ongoing investigations, like the Clinton email probe.

The OIG found that McCabe’s authorization of disclosures to the media regarding the Clinton email investigation “effectively confirmed the existence” of the probe, “which then-FBI Director Comey had previously refused to do.”

DOJ internal watchdog: McCabe 'lacked candor' in at least 4 instances

The report also listed at least four instances in which McCabe "lacked candor" when discussing the disclosures while he was under oath.

In one instance, the report said, McCabe lacked candor when he led Comey to believe, after the article was published, that he had not authorized the disclosures to the Journal and did not know he did.

McCabe made similar statements when internal FBI investigators questioned him about the disclosures on May 9, 2017, the report said.

A little over two months later, the report found that McCabe lacked candor when he testified under oath to the OIG that he was not aware Page had been authorized to speak to reporters about the Clinton investigation, and that he could not say where Page was or what she was doing in the days immediately prior to when the Journal published its October 30 piece.

Lastly, the report said McCabe contradicted his previous statements when he acknowledged he had authorized the media disclosures while testifying before the OIG on November 29, 2017. He additionally "lacked candor" when he "stated that he told Comey on October 31, 2016, that he had authorized the disclosure to the WSJ," and when he denied telling internal FBI investigators on May 9 that he had not authorized a specific disclosure to the Journal about his phone call with the principal assistant deputy attorney general.

Details of the call were included in the October 30 Journal article.

The OIG also found that during his November 29 testimony, McCabe lacked candor when he described the manner in which he had been questioned by internal investigators on May 9.

"We concluded that McCabe’s decision to confirm the existence of the [Clinton] Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote … in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception," the inspector general's report said.

McCabe stepped down as deputy director in January after FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed him on the impending OIG report about his conduct.

The deputy director's ouster came following a string of public attacks President Donald Trump leveled against him, accusing him of putting his thumb on the scale in favor of Clinton.

Trump's attacks were based on information contained in a separate Wall Street Journal article published one week before the October 30. Barrett was the author of both.

McCabe's wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, mounted an unsuccessful run for a Virginia state Senate seat in 2015. The Journal reported on October 24, 2016 that her campaign received $675,000 in donations from the Virginia Democratic Party and from Common Good VA, the super PAC run by Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton supporter.

According to the OIG report, Barrett subsequently emailed the DOJ's Office of Public Affairs about a follow-up he was working on. Barrett told the OPA that he was told that McCabe gave himself instructions on how to proceed with the Clinton Foundation investigation that summer, "given that it was the height of election season and the FBI did not want to make a lot of overt moves that could be seen as going after [Clinton] or drawing attention to the probe."

When Barrett asked the OPA to comment on how accurate the description was, the report said McCabe instructed Page to provide information to Barrett for the follow-up story, which resulted in the October 30 article. </s> The Justice Department inspector general found that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe “lacked candor” on four occasions when discussing the disclosure of information for a Wall Street Journal article about the FBI’s Clinton Foundation investigation, according to a copy of the report obtained by CNN on Friday.

In addition, the inspector general determined that McCabe was not authorized to disclose the existence of the investigation because it was not within the department’s “public interest” exception for disclosing ongoing investigations. The inspector general said that the disclosure to the Journal was made “in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of department leadership.”

The instances the inspector general cited were McCabe’s conversations with federal investigators and also with then-FBI Director James Comey in October 2016.

The report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, which was sent to Capitol Hill on Friday ahead of its expected public release, formed the basis of McCabe’s firing last month by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Horowitz wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley Friday he expected the report to be released in May, “absent any new additional developments.”

President Donald Trump seized on the new report Friday to attack McCabe on Twitter, which he also did in the lead-up to McCabe’s firing and immediately afterward.

“DOJ just issued the McCabe report – which is a total disaster,” Trump tweeted Friday. “He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey – McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!”

In a statement responding to the report, McCabe’s attorney, Michael Bromwich, said the inspector general “utterly failed to support the decision to terminate Mr. McCabe.”

“In written submissions to the OIG and DOJ, we demonstrated that the charges were unsupported by the evidence and that the OIG’s conclusions and the FBI-OPR proposal to terminate Mr. McCabe were unjustified,” Bromwich said.

The 35-page inspector general report goes into detail in arguing McCabe intentionally misled internal FBI and inspector general investigators about whether he had authorized the disclosure of an August 2016 phone conversation regarding the FBI’s Clinton Foundation investigation to The Wall Street Journal. The report also says that McCabe told investigators he had informed Comey in October 2016 that he had authorized a discussion of the conversation, while Comey testified that he did not recall McCabe doing so.

“While the only direct evidence regarding this McCabe-Comey conversation were the recollections of the two participants, there is considerable circumstantial evidence and we concluded that the overwhelming weight of that evidence supported Comey’s version of the conversation,” the report states.

“Mr. McCabe’s recollection of discussions he had with Director Comey about this issue is extremely clear; Director Comey’s recollection is, by his own acknowledgment, not at all clear,” Bromwich said. “And yet two of the lack of candor allegations are based on Director Comey’s admittedly vague and uncertain recollection of those discussions.”

McCabe’s firing occurred less than two days before his planned retirement, denying him certain retirement benefits. The inspector general report on McCabe was forwarded to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is staffed by career officials and recommended McCabe’s dismissal.

McCabe responded to the firing by charging it was part of a larger effort from the Trump administration to discredit the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

“This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally,” McCabe said in a statement last month.

Democrats have emphasized that McCabe’s dismissal has nothing to do with the special counsel’s investigation into Trump and Russia, while raising questions about the firing.

“The report issued by the Inspector General today has absolutely nothing to do with Special Counsel Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, the conduct of federal investigators so far, or the multiple indictments they have secured against Russian nationals and Trump campaign officials,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the rush to fire McCabe before his retirement “casts a tremendous shadow over the integrity of this process.”

“I can’t disregard his actions, but I’m disappointed the context wasn’t given more weight,” she said in a statement.

But Republicans say the report shows McCabe’s firing was justified.

“The Inspector General found not only did McCabe divulge sensitive information, he did it without the permission, authority, or knowledge of his supervisor,” said House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy. “This report continues to call into question decisions made by FBI leadership in 2016 and 2017, which is why the Oversight and Judiciary Committees will continue our joint investigation into the matter.”

The report on McCabe is part of a larger investigation from Horowitz into the FBI’s handling of the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server.

That investigation is also expected to address the actions of Comey, whose upcoming book is already making waves and prompted Trump to call Comey a “weak and untruthful slime ball” in a tweet.

While the report is mostly focused on the disclosures in the Clinton Foundation investigation, it also sheds more light on his recusal in both the Clinton Foundation and Clinton email investigations.

The report states that Comey asked McCabe on October 27, 2016, to “drop off” a call about the Clinton emails found on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s laptop, one day before Comey informed Congress the FBI was reopening the probe due to the new emails.

McCabe was “very unhappy” about being forced off the call, according to the report. Comey wanted him off the call out of an “abundance of caution” because of “appearance issues” following a Wall Street Journal article about political donations to his wife from former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an ally of Clinton.

On November 1, McCabe informed FBI officials he was recusing himself. </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Comey has come under fire from both Democrats and Republicans

A highly anticipated US Department of Justice report accuses ex-FBI director James Comey of being "insubordinate" but not politically biased.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Mr Comey had broken "dramatically from FBI and department norms" in handling an inquiry into Hillary Clinton's emails.

Mrs Clinton has blamed Mr Comey for her election loss to Donald Trump in 2016.

The report also reveals Mr Comey used a private email account for FBI business.

FBI director Christopher Wray said he accepted the report's findings but he added that nothing in the report pointed towards political bias or impugned the FBI as an institution.

In his report, the inspector general criticised Mr Comey's decision to reveal publicly a week before the election that he had reopened the inquiry into Mrs Clinton's emails, rejecting Mr Comey's argument that he had acted in the interests of transparency.

He found that while Mr Comey's actions were not the result of political bias, "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".

The 500-page report also found "a troubling lack of any direct, substantive communication" between Mr Comey and Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

But the report also touched on text messages between two FBI officials who later worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.

Peter Strzok, who was Mr Mueller's lead agent in the Russian inquiry, was having an affair with Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who also temporarily worked on the Mueller investigation.

When Ms Page asked if Mr Trump would become president, Mr Strzok responded: "No. No he won't. We'll stop it."

The report called this "not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate's electoral prospects".

Image copyright US government Image caption FBI agent Peter Strzok texted his lover that they could "stop" Mr Trump becoming president

Republicans have seized on the messages to argue the FBI investigation was biased against President Donald Trump.

Christopher Wray said employees would be held accountable for any misconduct as a result of the report.

What about Comey's emails?

Potentially embarrassing for the former FBI director is the inspector general's finding that he used a private Gmail address to conduct some official business.

This practice continued while he was investigating Mrs Clinton for using a private email account to handle government secrets - which at the time Mr Comey branded "extremely careless".

When asked about his own email by investigators, Mr Comey said: "I had the sense that it was OK."

He said he only handled non-confidential information on his Gmail, and it was only used for information that would become public anyway, such as speeches or public statements.

But the inspector general said it was "inconsistent" with justice department policy.

Mrs Clinton took to Twitter to make a sarcastic comment.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Comey released a book earlier this year detailing his decisions as FBI director

Fuel for partisan fires

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News

James Comey deviated from FBI policy in his handling of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

This isn't exactly news. In fact, it's something both Democrats and Republicans agree on - although for very different reasons.

Now the inspector general has weighed in, and while he says that it was reasonable for Mr Comey to decide not to charge Hillary Clinton with mishandling classified information, the way he went about announcing that was improper.

What's more, his letter to Congress on the eve of the presidential election represented a "serious error of judgement".

All of this will have Mrs Clinton's supporters nodding in agreement.

Where the matter gets more complicated, however, is in evidence of anti-Trump sentiment the inspector general exposed within the FBI.

While he concluded that it did not bias the investigation into Mrs Clinton, the effect on the Trump-Russia inquiry was not within the inspector general's mandate.

Expect the president and his supporters to amplify Peter Strzok's text message that "we'll stop" Mr Trump from becoming president and point to the inspector general's finding that he may have been biased in prioritising the Trump investigation over the Clinton one in the last month of the presidential campaign.

In the end, the inspector general report will provide fuel for partisan fires on both sides - and it will be very difficult to keep the flames from spreading to Robert Mueller's ongoing special counsel investigation.

Why was there a report?

In announcing the review in January 2017, Mr Horowitz said there was overwhelming demand from lawmakers, members of the public, and "various organisations" to investigate claims of unprofessional behaviour on the part of the justice department and FBI employees.

President Trump is among the most vocal critics of the FBI and the Department of Justice, repeatedly accusing several employees of being biased against him.

The report focuses on Mr Comey's decision in July 2016, when FBI director, to hold a news conference announcing that Mrs Clinton would not be criminally charged for using a private email server for classified information during her time as US secretary of state.

Eleven days before the presidential election, Mr Comey announced that the bureau was investigating new emails related to the Clinton email inquiry.

The inspector general's report calls that decision a "serious error in judgment".

Mrs Clinton and her aides blamed Mr Comey for her subsequent defeat while Democrats pointed out that he remained silent at the time about an investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Mr Trump's decision to fire Mr Comey in May 2017 led the Department of Justice to appoint Mr Mueller, an ex-FBI director, to open an investigation into the Russia allegations.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with the Kremlin, calling the Russia investigation a "witch hunt".

How has Comey reacted?

On Twitter and in a New York Times op-ed, he said he had no regrets about his handling of the Clinton investigation.

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch released a statement outlining how the report upheld her "fidelity to the rule of law", making no mention of any of the criticism it levelled at her.

The president, meanwhile, took to Twitter to brand allegations of Russian collusion as "phony" and "garbage".

On Friday morning, Mr Trump told Fox News that "Comey was the ring leader of a den of thieves".

"What he did was criminal, terrible in terms of the constitution and horrible," Mr Trump said.

He added, however, that he "would never want to get involved in whether Comey should be locked up". </s> Washington, June 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has launched fierce attacks on former FBI Director James Comey, a day after the release of a watchdog report that concludes there were errors, not political bias in the agency’s handling of its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server.

In a flurry of tweets on Friday morning, Trump said that the report, conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s inspector general, is a “total disaster” for Comey and the FBI, claiming that he “did a great service to the people” in firing the agency’s former chief, Xinhua reported.

According to the highly-anticipated report, Comey was insubordinate but not driven by political bias when making some key decisions as to the probe of Clinton’s email use while she was secretary of state, during the period of the 2016 presidential campaign, which have drawn criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.

The 500-page report also concluded that the Clinton email probe was not tainted by political bias, even though it was critical of two FBI staff members who exchanged highly charged political messages over Trump, finding that their texts created the appearance of bias and cast cloud over the FBI.

During an interview with Fox News Channel at the White House on Friday morning, Trump said “the end result was wrong” and there was “total bias.”

Later, he told other reporters that “Comey was the ring leader of this whole, you know, den of thieves. It was a den of thieves.”

Responding to the report Thursday, Comey tweeted that he respects the Inspector General’s office and that their “conclusions are reasonable,” even though he disagreed with some of them. He said that “people of good faith” can see the “unprecedented situation differently.”

Comey was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017. He has repeatedly criticized Comey for his handling of the Clinton probe and also targeted top officials of the FBI and the DOJ for what he called political bias against him.

Trump’s defenders, including his lawyer and some Republicans, have seized on the report to justify Comey’s ouster, while Democrats were concerned that the report would be used to undercut the ongoing Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose appointment followed Comey’ s departure.

Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation.

Trump, who has repeatedly called the Russia probe “hoax” or “witch hunt,” has ratcheted up pressure on it in the past months. Russia has denied interference in the election campaign.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said on Friday that the report casts doubt on whether the president would ever agree to an interview with Mueller’s team.

Trump himself said he had “reservations” about a sit-down with the investigators.

FBI Director Christopher Wray defended his agency on Thursday, saying that the report only addresses a specific set of facts and the actions of a handful of officials and that “nothing” in it “impugns” the integrity of the FBI workforce as a whole. </s> • The Department of Justice's inspector general released the findings of an internal investigation into Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director.
• The Office of the Inspector General found at least four instances in which McCabe "lacked candor" when discussing his decision to authorize disclosures to the media about the FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
• The report concluded that "McCabe's decision to confirm the existence of the [Clinton Foundation] Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote ... was clearly not within the public interest exception."

The Department of Justice inspector general released on Friday its findings of an internal investigation into Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director.

McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year as the inspector general was putting together the report, which centers on his approval of disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, concluded in Friday's report that McCabe was not forthcoming during his office's review.

When Horowitz informed the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility about his findings last month, it recommended Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire McCabe, which Sessions did. McCabe's ouster came two days before he was set to retire.

President Donald Trump, who leveled a string of scathing and public attacks before and after McCabe's firing, weighed in on the report shortly after it was released Friday.

"DOJ just issued the McCabe report — which is a total disaster," Trump tweeted. "He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey — McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!"

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers who have been concerned that Trump will use the OIG's report to bolster his attempts to discredit the Russia investigation pointed out that it centers on McCabe and is not connected Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading that inquiry.

DOJ internal watchdog: McCabe 'lacked candor' in at least 4 instances

The Wall Street Journal article at the center of the OIG's inquiry into McCabe was published on October 30, 2016, two days after James Comey, the FBI director at the time, announced in a letter to Congress that the bureau was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

The article was a detailed account of internal strife within the top ranks of the DOJ about how to proceed after FBI agents investigating Anthony Weiner, the former New York congressman, discovered 650,000 emails on his laptop that could have been sent to or received from Clinton's private email server.

The reporter who wrote The Journal's article, Devlin Barrett, was in touch with two top FBI officials on the phone two days before the story broke, according to text messages released in February.

The officials were Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who often worked with McCabe, and Michael Kortan, an FBI spokesman. The OIG report refers to Page and Kortan as "Special Counsel" and "then-Assistant Director for Public Affairs."

While law-enforcement officials often speak to the press on background to provide more complete details about a story, they are prohibited from disclosing information about ongoing investigations.

The inspector general found that McCabe's authorization of disclosures to the media regarding the Clinton Foundation investigation "effectively confirmed the existence" of the inquiry, something Comey "had previously refused to do."

The report also listed at least four instances in which McCabe "lacked candor" when discussing the disclosures while he was under oath.

In one instance, the report said, McCabe led Comey to believe, after the article was published, that he had not authorized the disclosures to The Journal and did not know who did.

McCabe made similar statements when internal FBI investigators questioned him about the disclosures on May 9, the report said.

A little over two months later, according to the report, McCabe told the OIG under oath that he was not aware Page had been authorized to speak to reporters about the Clinton Foundation investigation and that he could not say where Page was or what she was doing in the days before The Journal published the article.

Lastly, the report said McCabe contradicted his previous statements while testifying before the OIG on November 29 when he acknowledged he had authorized the media disclosures.

According to the report, he "stated that he told Comey on October 31, 2016, that he had authorized the disclosure" to The Journal and denied telling FBI investigators on May 9 that he had not authorized a disclosure to The Journal about his phone call with the principal assistant deputy attorney general, details of which were included in the article.

The inspector general also found that during his November 29 testimony, McCabe lacked candor when he described the manner in which he had been questioned by the internal investigators on May 9.

"We concluded that McCabe's decision to confirm the existence of the [Clinton Foundation] Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior Department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception," the inspector general's report said.

McCabe stepped down as deputy director in January after FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed him on the impending report about his conduct.

The deputy director's ouster followed a string of public attacks leveled by President Donald Trump, accusing him of putting his thumb on the scale in Clinton's favor.

Trump's attacks were based on information in a separate Journal article published one week before the one on October 30 and written by Barrett focusing on an unsuccessful 2015 run for a Virginia Senate seat by McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe.

The Journal reported on October 24, 2016, that her campaign received $675,000 in donations from the Virginia Democratic Party and Common Good VA, the super PAC run by Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton supporter.

According to the inspector general's report, Barrett emailed Kortan and the Office of Public Affairs about a follow-up story he was working on, saying he was told McCabe gave instructions on how to proceed with the Clinton Foundation investigation that summer, "given that it was the height of election season and the FBI did not want to make a lot of overt moves that could be seen as going after [Clinton] or drawing attention to the probe."

When Barrett asked the office to comment on the accuracy of the description, McCabe instructed Page to provide information to Barrett for the follow-up story, which resulted in the October 30 article.

The inspector general also found a discrepancy in descriptions by two officials — one of them McCabe — of an instance in which McCabe is said to have discussed recusing himself from the Clinton Foundation investigation.

The report cites testimony by the "New York Assistant Director In Charge" and an email he sent to himself in which McCabe indicated to him and an FBI executive assistant director that he would recuse himself from the investigation and told the two men he "may make a more formal decision at a later time."

The report says the assistant director later testified to the OIG that McCabe "couched it as like, hey, this is not final ... I don't know, I think he says he still has to talk about it."

The assistant director said he clarified with McCabe that he would begin reporting to the executive assistant director regarding the investigation.

But according to the OIG's report, McCabe told the internal watchdog that he did not recall such a conversation.

"I suppose it's possible that I may have referred to the concept if that was being discussed generally at the time," McCabe said, per the report. "But I would not have said to [NY-ADIC], like, I'm thinking about recusing." </s> President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the Department of Justice’s Inspector General report because it concluded former FBI Director James Comey did not let any political bias impact his decisions.

“The end result was wrong,” Trump told “Fox & Friends’” Steve Doocy. “There was total bias. It was a pretty good report and then I say that the IG blew it at the very end with that statement.”

Although the report was scathing in its assessment of how Comey handled the Clinton email investigation, it largely concluded that Comey’s actions had the effect of hurting Hillary Clinton’s campaign, not Trump’s. – READ MORE </s> US President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Palm Beach International in West Palm Beach, Florida on April 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGANMANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images ORIG FILE ID: AFP_1461PT

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump blasted former FBI director James Comey on Friday and argued that the long-awaited review of the investigation into the Hillary Clinton email scandal underscored deep problems at the bureau.

Reacting for the first time to the Justice Department inspector general’s review of the 2016 probe, Trump said Comey would “now officially go down as the worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI." He also criticized anti-Trump messages between a pair of FBI officials involved in an extramarital affair.

“The IG Report is a total disaster for Comey, his minions and sadly, the FBI,” Trump posted on Twitter early Friday. “I did a great service to the people in firing him. Good Instincts.”

The inspector general’s report, released Thursday, found that Comey broke FBI and Justice Department protocol in how it handled the Clinton investigation. But it also found that Comey’s actions were not motivated by political bias. Comey said Thursday that he thought the conclusions were “reasonable,” though he disagreed with some of them.

The report uncovered anti-Trump messages between FBI lawyer Lisa Page and counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok. "(Trump's) not ever going to become president, right?" Page wrote in one text message. In response, Strzok, who helped oversee the Clinton investigation, wrote: "No. No he's not. We'll stop it.”

“Doesn’t get any lower than that!” Trump tweeted Friday.

More: Watchdog rebukes ex-FBI director Comey over Clinton email case, but found no evidence of bias

More: 'But my emails': Hillary Clinton claps back after report reveals Comey used Gmail </s> Andrew McCabe details the filing of civil forfeiture complaints in June. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

The Department of Justice's inspector general released on Friday findings from an internal investigation into fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year as the Office of the Inspector General was putting together the report, which centers on his approval of disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's Hillary Clinton email probe.

The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, concluded in Friday's report that McCabe was not forthcoming during his office's review. When Horowitz informed the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility about his findings last month, it recommended Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire McCabe, which Sessions then did last month. McCabe's ouster came two days before he was set to retire.

The Wall Street Journal article at the center of the OIG's inquiry into McCabe was published on October 30, 2016, two days after then-FBI Director James Comey announced in a letter to Congress that the bureau was reopening its investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server.

The article was a highly detailed account of internal strife within the top ranks of the DOJ about how to proceed after FBI agents investigating former New York congressman Anthony Weiner discovered 650,000 emails on his laptop that could have been sent to or from Clinton's private email server.

The reporter who wrote The Journal's article, Devlin Barrett, was in touch with two top FBI officials on the phone two days before the story broke, according to text messages released in February. The officials were FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who often worked with McCabe, and then-FBI spokesman Michael Kortan.

While law-enforcement officials often speak to the press on background in order to provide more complete details about an ongoing story, they are prohibited from revealing information about ongoing investigations, like the Clinton email probe.

McCabe stepped down as deputy director in January after FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed him on the impending OIG report about his conduct.

The deputy director's ouster came following a string of public attacks President Donald Trump leveled against him, accusing him of putting his thumb on the scale in favor of Clinton. </s> James Comey has been fired as director of the FBI over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, the White House announced on Tuesday.

The move was condemned by one Senate Democrat as “Nixonian” and raised concerns over the FBI’s investigation into alleged links between aides to Donald Trump and Russia.

In a letter to Comey, the president wrote: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau.

“It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”

The dismissal of America’s top law enforcement official came days after he testified on Capitol Hill about Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state and the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference.

Comey incorrectly testified that former Clinton aide Huma Abedin “forwarded hundreds and thousands” of emails to her husband’s laptop, including some with classified information.

On Tuesday, the FBI said in a two-page letter to the Senate judiciary committee that only “a small number” of the thousands of emails found on the laptop had been forwarded there, while most had simply been backed up from electronic devices.

In a recent interview, Clinton partly blamed Comey’s letter in late October, notifying Congress that the FBI was studying the emails on the laptop of Abedin’s husband Anthony Weiner, for costing her the presidential election.

Comey had also been fiercely criticised for holding a press conference last July in which he said Clinton would not be charged but nevertheless criticised her as “extremely careless”. The move was seen as infringing on the role of the justice department and attorney general.

The timing of Comey’s dismissal seemed to be related to the recent confirmation of Rod Rosenstein as deputy attorney general. In a memo released on Tuesday, Rosenstein wrote: “The director was wrong to usurp the attorney general’s authority on 5 July 2016, and announce his conclusion that the [Clinton] case should be closed without prosecution. It is not the function of the director to make such an announcement.”

The memo added: “Compounding the error, the director ignored another longstanding principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation … the director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial.

“It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do … the way the director handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong.”

Comey, 56, was nominated by Barack Obama in 2013 to a 10-year term. The White House said the search for his successor will begin immediately.

A statement from the White House said: “Today, President Donald J Trump informed FBI director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office. President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”

The statement quoted Trump as saying: “The FBI is one of our Nation’s most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement.”

Comey’s dismissal raises questions over the future of the FBI’s investigation into alleged ties between Trump associates and Russia during the presidential election, which US intelligence agencies believe Russia sought to influence in favour of Trump.

Robby Mook, Clinton’s former campaign manager, tweeted: “Surprised I’m saying this, but I don’t see how this bodes well for the Russia investigation.”

He added: “Twilight zone. I was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the email investigation was handled. But this terrifies me.”



Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said: “This is Nixonian. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein must immediately appoint a special counsel to continue the Trump/Russia investigation … this investigation must be independent and thorough in order to uphold our nation’s system of justice.”

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island and a member of the Senate judiciary committee, added: “While the White House is under investigation by the FBI, firing the head of the FBI raises massive questions, and the Senate should get to the bottom of it.

“America needs to have confidence that the Department of Justice will fill its traditional role of following the facts fearlessly, and prosecuting whomever has violated the law no matter the office they hold.”

Republicans backed the president. Senate judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley said: “The handling of the Clinton email investigation is a clear example of how Comey’s decisions have called into question the trust and political independence of the FBI. In my efforts to get answers, the FBI, under Comey’s leadership, has been slow or failed to provide information that Comey himself pledged to provide.

“The effectiveness of the FBI depends upon the public trust and confidence. Unfortunately, this has clearly been lost.”



Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said: “Given the recent controversies surrounding the director, I believe a fresh start will serve the FBI and the nation well. I encourage the president to select the most qualified professional available who will serve our nation’s interests.”

During his testimony last week, Comey was pressed repeatedly about the contrast between his decision to break silence on the Clinton email case while concealing the existence of a counter-intelligence investigation into Trump campaign contacts with Russian officials during the presidential election.

He argued that one had been closed with no charges made, whereas the other was highly classified and was in its “very early stages”.
The U.S. Department of Justice publishes a 568-page report by Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz on the FBI's handling of its investigation of Hillary Clinton's email practices. The report is critical of former FBI Director James Comey, accusing him of being "insubordinate", but finding that his actions were not politically biased.