Senate judiciary panel grills Justice inspector general, FBI director on Clinton email probe
WASHINGTON — Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz defended his scathing review of the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, maintaining Monday that there was no “documentary evidence” that political bias affected investigative decision making.
In his first public comments since delivering the 568-page report last week, Horowitz told the Senate Judiciary Committee that cascading errors in judgment by top Justice and FBI officials seriously endangered the reputations of both institutions.
Though there was no finding of undue political influence, Horowitz acknowledged the “troubling” discovery of caches of text messages exchanged between two FBI officials that disparaged Donald Trump as a presidential candidate — a finding that fuels claims by the president and some Republican lawmakers that the FBI is biased against Trump.
The FBI officials — senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau attorney Lisa Page — held top positions in the Clinton inquiry and served on the team investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Strzok still works for the FBI; Page recently left the bureau.
“We found that the text communications cast a cloud over the (Clinton) investigation,” Horowitz said.
More: Did the watchdog report finally end the Clinton email scandal? Congress doesn’t think so
More: Watchdog rebukes ex-FBI Director Comey over Clinton email case but found no evidence of bias
More: Ex-FBI Director James Comey defends Clinton inquiry despite Justice IG’s searing critique
Some of the most blistering criticisms in the report were aimed at former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, finding that Comey acted “unilaterally†when he publicly announced the closing of the Clinton investigation at a news conference in July 2016.
Horowitz referred to a near communication blackout between Comey and Lynch when Comey reopened the Clinton inquiry 11 days before the election. Clinton claimed that the action doomed her campaign.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Comey and Lynch declined invitations to testify before the panel Monday.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, who succeeded Comey after his dismissal last year, appeared with Horowitz on Monday and told the Senate panel the FBI was pursuing misconduct allegations raised against FBI personnel in the report.
Still, Wray said, “Nothing in the report impugned the reputation of the FBI as a whole.”