President Trump on Friday responded to an Inspector General (IG) report released last week that called former FBI Director James Comey’s actions in the Hillary Clinton email investigation “extraordinary and insubordinate.”
The President also made an impromptu appearance on Fox & Friends, calling Comey “scum” and saying that the IG “blew it,” Fox News reported.
“I think Comey was the ringleader of this whole den of thieves,” Trump said.
“If you took a poll at the FBI, [I would win],” Trump added. “I mean the real FBI, not the scum on top,” Trump said, referring to Comey.
The President also took to Twitter early Friday morning, saying that the IG report “is a total disaster for Comey, his minions and sadly, the FBI.”
“Comey will now officially go down as the worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI,” Trump said.
The IG Report is a total disaster for Comey, his minions and sadly, the FBI. Comey will now officially go down as the worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI. I did a great service to the people in firing him. Good Instincts. Christopher Wray will bring it proudly back!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2018
The IG report was the result of an 18-month investigation led by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The report concluded that Comey was insubordinate and faulted the former FBI head for going above his superiors, including former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, by holding a press conference to announce the FBI’s decision not to press criminal charges against Clinton.
The report ultimately concluded that the IG found no evidence the FBI probe of Clinton’s email servers was motivated by political bias, however.
The report did outline new text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who first came under scrutiny in December over a series of politically-charged, anti-Trump text messages they exchanged in the past.
Those texts revealed Strzok and Page’s desire to stop Trump from becoming President.
“Some of these text messages and instant messages mixed political commentary with discussions […], and raised concerns that political bias may have impacted investigative decisions,” the report read.
The report also noted that the text messages “potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations.”
Strzok’s attorney, Aitan Goelman, said: “After a year-long investigation that included a review of millions of communications and interviews of scores of witnesses, the IG concluded that there is no evidence that the political views of Special Agent Strzok and others in the FBI impacted the handling of the Clinton email investigation. As the report notes, Special Agent Strzok in particular was consistently thorough and aggressive, sometimes to the point that put him at odds with senior officials at the Department of Justice.”
The inspector general “blew it” where it concerns that decision, Trump said.
“FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who headed the Clinton & Russia investigations, texted to his lover Lisa Page, in the IG Report, that “we’ll stop” candidate Trump from becoming President. Doesn’t get any lower than that,” Trump tweeted last week.
FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who headed the Clinton & Russia investigations, texted to his lover Lisa Page, in the IG Report, that “we’ll stop” candidate Trump from becoming President. Doesn’t get any lower than that!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2018
President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, also responded to the report on Friday, which he says completely undercuts the justification for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“They should end it. I mean, the IG report basically tells you that both prongs of the Mueller investigation are either corrupt or answered,” Giuliani told Fox & Friends.
“So this thing has to change from an investigation of the Trump Administration for collusion – which is a made-up charge by Peter Strzok who said ‘I’m going to get Trump. I’m going to stop him. I’m going to get him out of the White House,'” he added. “It should become an investigation of Comey, those FBI agents, who should be fired today and imprisoned next week.”
