US Justice Department reveals Comey's 'miscalculations' in Hillary Clinton case

The US Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General on Thursday released a report on the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, which the former Secretary of State said contributed to her loss in the presidential election, writes "Voice of America".

In a long-awaited report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz pointed out that FBI Director James Komi made a “serious judicial mistake” by publishing investigative data during an election in which then Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton participated.

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The report of Inspector General Michael Horowitz, whose presentation took place on Thursday afternoon, was compiled following an investigation launched almost a week after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The main task of the inspector general was to determine whether the public statements by the ex-director of the FBI, James Komi, about the investigation into the Clinton email case were based on “inappropriate considerations”.

According to news agency Bloomberg, having familiarized himself with the content of the report, Komi deviated from the rules of the department, but there is no evidence that his actions were based on political commitment. “Although we did not consider that these decisions were the result of political engagement on the part of Komi, we nevertheless came to the conclusion that these decisions, connected with such an obvious and sharp deviation from the norms of the FBI and the ministry, negatively affected his image”, - the report says Horowitz.

In July 2016, Komi held an unusual press conference, during which he explained why the FBI does not recommend criminal charges against Clinton due to the fact that she used a private email server as secretary of state. The head of the FBI called her actions “extremely careless,” but stressed that there were no grounds for bringing charges.

In October 2016 of the year, less than two weeks before the election, Komi sent a letter to Congress announcing the resumption of the investigation after the discovery of new emails in the computer of the former member of the House of Representatives Anthony Wiener, husband of counselor Clinton Houma Abedin.

Two days before the election, Komi announced that the FBI did not find new evidence.

In May 2017, Trump fired Komi, who led an investigation into a deal between the president’s campaign headquarters and Russia.

The inspector general also tried to find out if the FBI had disclosed information about the investigations of the e-mails to Clinton and the Clinton Charitable Foundation in an attempt to help Trump's victory.

Law enforcement officials previously reported Reutersthat the information was conveyed to the former mayor of New York, Rudi Giuliani, who advised Trump's election campaign, and now represents the interests of the president in connection with the investigation of Special Prosecutor Muller about Russian interference in the elections.

The report also mentions FBI officials Peter Strozk and Lisa Page, who were accused by Republicans of being biased against Trump after their extensive correspondence with working mobile phones was made public.

In some reports, they criticized Trump, and in some - American lawmakers, including Senator Bernie Sanders, who lost to Clinton in the fight for a democratic presidential nomination. Page and Strzok participated in both the Clinton investigation and the Russian investigation. Muller eliminated Strzok from his team after Horowitz showed him the correspondence.

The first reaction to the report

On Thursday evening, at a press conference in Washington, FBI Director Christopher Ray commented on the findings of the inspector general’s report.

“This report did not find any evidence of political bias or improper considerations actually influencing the investigation in question,” Wray said. At the same time, he admitted that the document revealed legal errors and a number of violations, and now the federal agency is working to eliminate such errors and violations in the future.

In turn, at a press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Hakabi Sanders noted that President Trump had been informed earlier on Thursday of the report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and that the data from this report had once again confirmed the president’s “suspicions” about political bias »Some FBI staff.