An attorney for Peter Strzok hit back at a Department of Justice inspector general’s report Thursday, calling it “critically flawed” in some respects.
The attorney, Aitan Goelman, acknowledged that the report, in its own words, “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed,” but he took issue with another section.
“[T]he report is critically flawed in its bizarre conclusion that the IG cannot rule out ‘with confidence’ the possibility that Special Agent Strzok’s political ‘bias’ may have been a cause of the FBI’s failure, between September 29 and October 25, 2016, to seek a second search warrant for the Anthony Weiner laptop.”
That’s a reference to a delay in the FBI’s seeking emails potentially relevant to the Clinton email server investigation on Weiner’s computer. “[W]e did not have confidence that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on the Midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias,” the IG report read.
That delay, Goelman asserts, was caused by other “factors and miscommunications that had nothing to do with Special Agent Strzok’s political views.” (Emphasis his).
Read the full response below via ABC:
JUST IN: Attorney for FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok calls IG report “critically flawed” in some of its conclusions.
“Every witness asked by the OIG said that Strzok’s work was never influenced by political views.” https://t.co/HcYrZUemk4 pic.twitter.com/KMcQsPOKL5
— ABC News (@ABC) June 14, 2018
