Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the new Justice Department inspector general’s report on the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private emails in 2016 reveals a “number of significant errors” by the those in leadership at the Justice Department under former President Barack Obama’s administration.
“The Inspector General’s report reveals a number of significant errors by the senior leadership of the Department of Justice and the FBI during the previous administration,” Sessions said in a statement, according to CNN. “Accordingly, this report must be seen as an opportunity for the FBI — long considered the world’s premier investigative agency — and all of us at the Department to learn from past mistakes. The Department is not above criticism, and it is accountable to the Chief Executive, Congress, and most importantly, the American people.”
The highly anticipated IG report came out Thursday afternoon, revealing that former FBI director James Comey conduct in 2016 was “insubordinate” but not politically motivated.
One of the key issues of potential bias the report notes was that the IG was not certain Strzok’s bias did not impact the extent to which Strzok prioritized investigating Trump-Russia issues versus looking at the Clinton emails on Abedin’s computer. So let’s assume there was bias and Strzok slow-walked looking at the emails on the Abedin computer. What was the result? The result was Comey’s letter that likely threw the election to Trump. If Strzok had moved more quickly, we may have known in early October that there were no new emails or reason to open the email probe. Or Comey would have had time to figure that out before writing to Congress that there was nothing new on Abedin’s computer and never written that letter. So to the extent there was bias, it actually seems to have benefitted Trump.
“The Inspector General’s report reveals a number of significant errors by the senior leadership of the Department of Justice and the FBI during the previous administration,” Sessions said in a statement.
“And I’m proud to say we blew past that record on Day One,” he added.
Having to walk back a lot of big promises about the IG report today. Trying to scrape some crumbs together and call it a feast.
Says the Significant Error of Nature.
Ok. And then what happens?