WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump on Friday rejected the conclusion of the new report of the Justice Department's inspector general, which found that mistakes FBI leaders made in investigating Hillary Clinton's private emails during the 2016 campaign were not the result of any bias, including on the part of former Director James B. Comey.
"The end result was wrong. There was total bias," Trump said during a live interview on "Fox & Friends" from the White House North Lawn. "It was a pretty good report, and then I say that the IG blew it at the very end with that statement."
Despite that, Trump falsely claimed the report "totally exonerates" him, though it has nothing to do with separate allegations that Russia interfered in the campaign to hurt Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and that Trump associates might have been complicit. Those allegations, along with suggestions that Trump sought to obstruct justice in the probe, are the subject of the separate, ongoing investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
The president claimed that he would win a poll of current FBI rank-and file officers, but he referred to the FBI leadership during the 2016 election as "a den of thieves" as it managed investigations into both campaigns.
He specifically referred to the text messages between agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, in which they expressed angst about Trump's election and vowed, in one text, to "stop it." He called the messages "vicious."
Strzok's actions, the president said, were "criminal." He added, "I don't know how Peter Strzok is still working there."
Trump said that FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom he nominated to lead the bureau after firing Comey a year ago, is reforming the agency but he suggested that the perceived bias among some agents would continue. As he has claimed before, Trump portrayed the Mueller investigation as the work of "13 angry Democrats," though Mueller is a Republican, as is Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, a Trump appointee who named Mueller and oversees his team's work.
Trump, reminded by Fox's Steve Doocy that he oversees the Justice Department and has the power to make changes, said that he has tried to "stay uninvolved."
He added: "I may get involved at some point, but I'm staying uninvolved."
