It looks like we’re getting closer to the release of the Inspector General’s report on the Hilary Clinton investigation by the FBI and DOJ. It’s now being revealed that the report finds that Comey acted in an insubordinate manner back in 2016 when he sent Congress a letter letting them know he reopened the Hillary email case:
ABC NEWS – The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has concluded that James Comey defied authority at times during his tenure as FBI director, according to sources familiar with a draft report on the matter.
One source told ABC News that the draft report explicitly used the word “insubordinate” to describe Comey’s behavior. Another source agreed with that characterization but could not confirm the use of the term.
The draft of Horowitz’s wide-ranging report specifically called out Comey for ignoring objections from the Justice Department when he disclosed in a letter to Congress just days before the 2016 presidential election that FBI agents had reopened the Clinton probe, according to sources. Clinton has said that letter doomed her campaign.
Before Comey sent the letter to Congress, at least one senior Justice Department official told the FBI that publicizing the bombshell move so close to an election would violate longstanding department policy, and it would ignore federal guidelines prohibiting the disclosure of information related to an ongoing investigation, ABC News was told.
Horowitz’s draft report cited Comey for failing to consult with Lynch and other senior Justice Department officials before making his announcement on national TV. While saying there was no “clear evidence” that Clinton “intended to violate” the law, Comey insisted the former secretary of state was “extremely careless” in her “handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
It apparently also criticizes former AG Loretta Lynch over how she handled the Bill Clinton tarmac meeting:
In the draft report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz also rebuked former Attorney General Loretta Lynch for her handling of the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s personal email server, the sources said.
By then, Lynch had taken the unusual step of publicly declaring she would accept the FBI’s recommendations in the case, after an impromptu meeting with former president Bill Clinton sparked questions about her impartiality.
The inspector general’s office seemed to similarly view Lynch’s announcement as strange, with the draft report criticizing her for how she handled the impromptu tarmac meeting and its aftermath, according to sources familiar with the findings.
When I first saw the headlines that Comey had defied authority, I was expecting a bit more than this. It’s small potatoes at the moment and I do expect the final report, if it ever comes out, will have a lot more than this.