U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) walks out of a closed meeting of the House Intelligence Committee as part of the panel’s probe into Russia's tampering in the 2016 US presidential election in Washington, U.S. November 7, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee said on Thursday a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general found the FBI deviated from normal procedures during its probe into former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“This report confirms investigative decisions made by the FBI during the pendency of this investigation were unprecedented and deviated from traditional investigative procedures in favor of a much more permissive and voluntary approach,” the Republican lawmaker, Trey Gowdy, said in a statement. “This is not the way normal investigations are run.”