Shortly after James Comey sent his notorious letter to then-Chairman Jason Chaffetz a week before the 2016 election, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz was charged with investigating whether or how anti-Clinton bias and leaking out of the FBI’s New York City field office may have driven the decision to send that letter. More than three years on, Horowitz has still not found time to conduct that investigation. Through each of these other probes we’ve been told it will either be included in this investigation or the next investigation. Those who credited these claims have again and again been disappointed. On the other hand we’ve had numerous probes into the origins of the Russia probe itself.
It’s a good example of Horowitz’s MO – and let’s remember he got the job under President Obama. These aren’t really political appointments per se. But he’s not a Trump appointee. Horowitz’s MO has been very consistent: apply an exhaustive scrutiny to questions which might be helpful to President Trump or at least not harm him and simply not ask the questions which might produce damaging or uncomfortable answers. Yesterday’s report, like the Comey mini-report before that and his yet earlier look at the origins of the Russia probe, all follow the same pattern.
But again, three years on, he still hasn’t found time to investigate that question. Why? The answer’s obvious. It would almost certainly unearth facts distinctly unwanted and unpleasant for the President, and in that case to his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
