Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded today in a much-awaited 500-page report that 57-year-old former FBI Director James Comey was “insubordinate” in handling former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s email investigation. Consistent with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein’s May 10, 2017 3-page letter explaining Comey’s May 9, 2017 firing, Horowitz said Comey breached Department of Justice [DOJ] protocol when he concluded July 5, 2016 that he would not pursue criminal charges against Hillary. Horowitz also said Comey breached DOJ protocol again when he announced publicly Oct. 28, 2016 he was reopening Hillary’s email investigation, only to decide Oct. 29 that he was once again not pursuing charges. In all of Comey’s testimony before Congress and subsequent interviews he’s denied doing anything wrong.
Horowitz’s report also said there was no evidence that Comey was driven by politics, something alleged by Hillary after losing the presidential election to Trump Nov. 8, 2016. When you consider Comey’s July 5 and Oct. 28 public announcements, you could make the case that he helped Trump’s campaign less that two weeks before the election. President Donald Trump believes Comey was biased against him for ordering wiretaps on his campaign during the 2016 election. With revelations about email exchanges between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI counsel Lisa Page slamming Trump before the election, it’s no wonder Trump has doubts about the impartiality of the FBI. Strzok and Page worked for Special Counsel Robert Mueller before their email exchange forced Mueller to fire them last summer. Democrats have already cherry-picked Horowitz’s report.
When Horowitz says Comey was not motivated by politics, it’s reasonable to ask what prompted the six-foot-eight-inch former FBI director to breach DOJ protocol? If Horowitz is correct, then Trump’s explanation of Comey’s behavior makes the most sense: He was grandstanding. Injecting himself into the 2016 presidential campaign, Comey testified into his twisted logic. He insisted he made public announcements about Hillary email investigation because he couldn’t trust former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch to do the right thing, especially after she was found visiting with former President Bill Clinton June 20, 2016 on the tarmac of Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. Comey bypassed his superiors at the DOJ to take matters into his own hands, something Horowitz called “insubordinate.” Democrats don’t like Horowitz’s report because it undercuts their obstruction of justice theory against Trump.
Since Trump fired Comey May 9, 2017, Democrats and their media friends screamed relentlessly that Trump interfered with the FBI’s Russian collusion investigation. Democrats could never explain, if Trump was within his rights under Article 2 of the Constitution, to fire anyone of his choice, then how could Trump engage in obstruction of justice? If Deputy Atty. Gen. Rosenstein concluded Comey breached DOJ protocol, it hurts Democrats’ charge that Trump engaged in obstruction of justice when he fired him. No Democrats—and certainly no one in the mainstream media—admits that Trump had plenty of justification to fire Comey May 9, 2017. If you listen to Comey in Congressional testimony or on his book tour, you’d think Trump had zero reason to fire him. Comey departed from DOJ policy because he wanted to inset himself into the 2016 presidential election.
At six-feet-eight-inches tall, it’s difficult to say Comey was too big for his britches. But his height was eclipsed by an oversized ego, believing as FBI director he was calling the shots. “We found no evidence that the conclusions by the prosecutors were affected by bias or other important considerations; rather, we determined that they were based on prosecutors’ assessment of the facts, the law and past department practice,” said Horowitz. If Horowitz looked at the fact that Hillary destroyed data on her private server and physically destroyed some 12-cell phones, he would have had an open-and-shut obstruction case. Yet Horowitz concludes that prosecutors were not affected by “bias or other considerations.” If DOJ prosecutors didn’t pursue a slam-dunk obstruction case, why was it overlooked? No one in the Democratic Party or media mentions anything about Hillary destroying data and physical evidence.
Today’s finding by the DOJ’s Inspector General validates Deputy Atty. Gen. Rodh Rosenstein’s May 10, 2017 three-page letter explaining why Comey was fired. Calling Comey “insubordinate” was Horowitz’s euphemistic way of saying the former FBI director was out of control, breaching DOJ protocol in the 2016 presidential election. Horowitz’s 500-page report made no mention of Muller’s Special Counsel investigation that has morphed from finding Russian meddling into the 2016 campaign to focusing on the Trump campaign’s alleged Russian collusion. Horowitz needs to reopen his case and explain why the DOJ and FBI didn’t pursue obstruction charges against Hillary once it was found she electronically deleted emails off her private server and physically destroyed some 12 cell phones. If that’s not the law’s definition of obstruction of justice then what is?
