IG report confirms ex-FBI Director Comey's insubordination
An Inspector General report is putting former FBI Director James Comey under the microscope as its findings reveal he acted in an “insubordinate” manner with his public statements on the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
The report released on Thursday outlines a damning assessment of Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who were found to have deviated from long-standing policies and investigative procedures.
“[Comey] gave his people too long of a leash knowing or he should have known that they had political animus in favor of Mrs. Clinton or against Donald Trump,” Fox News judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said during an interview on “The Intel Report.”
The former FBI director responded to the IG report via Twitter, saying he found the conclusion reasonable despite his disagreement with the some of the findings.
“People of good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently,” Comey said.
I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review. The conclusions are reasonable, even though I disagree with some. People of good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently. I pray no Director faces it again. Thanks to IG’s people for hard work.
— James Comey (@Comey) June 14, 2018
Newly discovered text exchanges between two officials working on the Clinton email investigation suggests an attempt to stop then-candidate Donald Trump from becoming president.
According to the report, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, special counsel to the deputy director, implied that investigative decisions were affected by “bias or improper considerations.”
“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page texted Strzok.
“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded.
Judge Napolitano said federal officials who voice political opinions on cases they are investigating should be barred from further proceedings.
“If you have a strong political opinion and politicians are involved and the opinion is so strong it’s going to affect your law enforcement judgment, you shouldn’t be on the case,” he said.
Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state should have resulted in charges filed against her, according to Napolitano.
“If the reason they fired James Comey is because of his exoneration of Hillary, why haven’t they corrected that exoneration?” he said.