June 14, 2018 01:03 PM UTC

Inspector General Report Doesn't Back up Trump Claims

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The office of the inspector general at the Justice Department released a 500-page report today related to former FBI Director James Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

As the New York Times explains, the report is certainly critical of Comey but does not back up claims of bias from President Trump and the White House:

The former F.B.I. director James B. Comey was “insubordinate” in his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, a critical Justice Department report concluded on Thursday.

But the report, by the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, does not challenge the decision not to prosecute Mrs. Clinton. Nor does it conclude that political bias at the F.B.I. influenced that decision, the officials said.

“We found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations,” the report said. “Rather, we concluded that they were based on the prosecutor’s assessment of facts, the law, and past department practice.”

The report has been highly anticipated in Washington, not least by President Trump, who has argued that a secret coterie of F.B.I. agents rigged the investigation to help Mrs. Clinton win the presidency. The findings cite no evidence to support that theory. [Pols emphasis]

Of course, President Trump doesn’t need things like facts or evidence to be convinced of something, and there is at least one quote in the report that Trump can — and probably will — use to reassert his “deep state” conspiracies.