WASHINGTON _ A long-awaited review of the FBI's actions during the 2016 campaign is expected to find former FBI director James B. Comey and others mishandled the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and improperly shared information about that investigation with the public.
The report, due to be released Thursday afternoon by Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, says Comey acted improperly but was not motivated by political bias, according to a draft of its conclusions first reported by Bloomberg.
"While we did not find that these decisions were the result of political bias on Comey's part, we nevertheless concluded that by departing so clearly and dramatically from FBI and department norms, the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice," Horowitz wrote in the report's conclusions, Bloomberg reported.
President Trump has been eagerly anticipating the report, which he predicted would be highly critical of Comey.
His eagerness has persisted even though the report is also likely to suggest that the FBI's actions hurt Clinton's campaign and therefore helped him win in 2016.
Trump has been publicly feuding with the former FBI director since firing him in May 2017. And at a time the president is pressuring law enforcement to end its investigation into Russian collusion during the campaign, a report that tarnishes the FBI's credibility provides useful ammunition for Trump. Trump, who turned 72 Thursday, predicted the findings would be a welcome birthday present.
The central focus of the report will be how the FBI went about investigating Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State. The practice violated government protocol and left classified information at risk of exposure. Clinton was accused by political opponents of recklessly endangering national security and trying to conceal her communications from disclosure under open records laws.
The Justice Department's handling of the investigation into Clinton was attacked by Democrats and Republicans. Trump's allies complained that the department, and Comey in particular, failed to pursue what they perceived to be blatant law breaking by Clinton. Democrats were enraged that Comey disregarded procedure by publicly sharing details about the email investigation in a manner that inflicted considerable political damage on Clinton.
Comey pilloried Clinton at a news conference in July 2016, during which he said she did not intentionally break the law but that she and her colleagues "were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." Comey's decision to hold a news conference to announce the FBI's view of an investigation was highly unusual, with an FBI director attacking a leading presidential candidate despite the absence of any indictments or evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Even more damaging to Clinton was Comey's disclosure in late October of that year, just days before the election, that he was reopening the investigation. The move was triggered by emails that agents found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, then the husband of Clinton's aide Huma Abedin.
The FBI closed the investigation again a few days later, on Nov. 6, finding that none of the emails on Weiner's computer was new and relevant to its investigation. Clinton has suggested that Comey's actions might have cost her the election by slowing her momentum in the final days of the race and sowing doubts about her in the minds of voters who were on the fence.
