FBI and Justice Department have gravely damaged credibility when we need them most Former FBI director James Comey put personal views above rules and damaged the FBI: Our view

The Editorial Board, USA TODAY | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption AP explains: DOJ's IG report on Clinton emails The Dept. of Justice's watchdog faults former FBI Director James Comey for breaking with protocol in his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, but it says his decisions before the 2016 elections were not driven by political bias.

The much-anticipated report about the conduct of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails found enough stupidity, insubordination and misjudgment to cast a cloud over the reputations of the FBI and its former Director James Comey.

But the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General did not find that Comey or the FBI was motivated by political bias in their investigation — a conclusion puncturing President Trump’s theory of an FBI conspiracy to rescue Clinton from prosecution and pin phony Russian-interference allegations on him.

Trump and his allies have spun that theory to taint Comey, whose firing by Trump raised questions of obstruction of justice, and to undermine a special counsel's investigation into Russia’s attempts to sabotage the 2016 election.

And while the findings of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report were damning enough without any embellishment, Trump twisted facts Friday into falsehoods. He asserted that “I’ve been totally exonerated," and alleged that Comey's actions seem “like very criminal acts to me.”

Bottom line, the report was not about Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Trump has not been exonerated because Horowitz did not investigate Trump's actions.

However, the inspector general's account of Comey’s conduct, as well as that of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and top FBI official Peter Strzok, are devastating, and the FBI will have to work long and hard to regain the public trust it has lost.

The report’s most damning revelations are of anti-Trump text messages between two FBI officials who were in a romantic relationship. Bureau lawyer Lisa Page texted to FBI Deputy Assistant Director Strzok: "(Trump's) not ever going to become president, right?" Strzok, who helped oversee the Clinton probe and initially was part of the team investigating connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, responded, "No. No he's not. We'll stop it."

Though Page and Strzok were not the only FBI officials to express anti-Trump views, the inspector general did not find evidence that political bias directly affected investigative decisions. However, texts from Strzok and others certainly attest to personal bias. And the IG found they implied a "willingness to take official action to impact" Trump’s prospects, which is “antithetical to the core values of the FBI and the Department of Justice.”

Those words will not be forgotten by the public. They play right into the Trump narrative of an FBI conspiracy, tainting hundreds of honorable people who work at the FBI and the important investigation into Russian interference in a U.S. election.

Comey comes in for the harshest criticism. He was "insubordinate." In an effort to protect the FBI's reputation, he put his personal views above longstanding department policy. He was wrong and grievously damaged the FBI’s reputation.

His news conference on July 5, 2016, during which he announced that Clinton would not be prosecuted, but excoriated her actions anyway, was purposely kept secret from Lynch, who was his boss. It departed “clearly and dramatically” from FBI and Justice norms: The FBI does not announce prosecution decisions; the Justice Department does. And officials do not criticize people they’ve decided not to charge.

The same was true for Comey’s decision in October, days before the presidential election, to inform Congress that he was reopening the Clinton investigation, based on newly discovered emails — only to close the investigation days later having found nothing.

Departing from rules might not sound like a big deal. But in federal investigations, with people’s lives and liberty at stake — and here with a presidential election at stake — adhering to rules keeps law enforcement honest and ensures impartial treatment for everyone.

As for the former attorney general, Lynch failed to rein in Comey when she twice had the chance. She also used horrendous judgment when she met privately with former President Bill Clinton in June 2016, a lapse that called into question the Justice Department's impartiality as the email investigation was wrapping up.

The FBI must now dig its way out of a deep hole. Its reputation as the nation’s premier law enforcement agency and its ability to do its job have both been damaged. There will be plenty of other politically charged investigations in the future, and when the stakes are the highest, officials could be tempted once again to flout established policies. The lesson is to hold fast to them. They are the pillars of the rule of law.

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