Government Watchdog Report Criticizes FBI, Comey Over Clinton Email Probe

James Comey

A new government watchdog report is highly critical of the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Bloomberg reports that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz accuses former FBI Director James Comey of deviating from standard investigative procedures, but said that his actions were not "the result of political bias." The report found that Comey's "decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice."

“While we did not find that these decisions were the result of political bias on Comey’s part, we nevertheless concluded that 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-plus page report also found that embattled agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page did not let their personal political bias impact their work during the investigation, but added that their conduct "cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation."

"We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed.” Still, he wrote that “the conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation.”

The full report is expected to be released to the public on Thursday afternoon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he expects it to be "a lengthy report and a careful report,” that could lead to more terminations at the FBI. 

Photo: Getty Images


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