A newly declassified appendix to a years-old Justice Department watchdog report reveals that then-FBI Director James Comey was influenced by classified intelligence to prematurely announce the closure of the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton.
The appendix also shows that the FBI failed to examine thumb drives that may have contained crucial evidence related to Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The revelations come from a classified appendix to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s 2018 report, which criticized the FBI’s politically charged handling of the “Midyear Exam” investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information via a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state, Just the News reported.
In July 2016, just four months before the presidential election, then-FBI Director James Comey unilaterally announced in a public speech that the investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had concluded and that no charges would be filed.
Around the same time, the FBI officially launched its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into allegations that Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia to influence the outcome of the election.
“This document shows an extreme lack of effort and due diligence in the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary Clinton’s email usage and mishandling of highly classified information,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday as he released the previously classified appendix to the DOJ watchdog report.
“Under Comey’s leadership, the FBI failed to perform fundamental investigative work and left key pieces of evidence on the cutting room floor. The Comey FBI’s negligent approach and perhaps intentional lack of effort in the Clinton investigation is a stark contrast to its full-throated investigation of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, which was based on the uncorroborated and now discredited Steele dossier. Comey’s decision-making process smacks of political infection.”
Grassley’s press release stated that in 2016 the FBI had “obtained intelligence reports discussing purported communications between” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who was the chairwoman of the Democratic National Convention at the time, and “two different individuals who worked for the Soros Open Society Foundations.”
Grassley noted that “the intelligence reports alleged that the Obama administration took efforts to scuttle the investigation into Clinton and protect her candidacy” and that the DOJ watchdog annex “shows” that Comey, then-FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, then-FBI special agent Peter Strzok, and others “did not make serious investigative efforts to determine the veracity, or lack thereof, regarding the intelligence reports.”
On July 5, 2016, Comey announced that he found no criminal wrongdoing by Clinton for transmitting classified information via an insecure private email server. Comey claimed in his speech about the Clinton case at the time that “although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Comey gave the speech after then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton in June 2016.
