Washington, June 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has launched fierce attacks on former FBI Director James Comey, a day after the release of a watchdog report that concludes there were errors, not political bias in the agency’s handling of its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server.

In a flurry of tweets on Friday morning, Trump said that the report, conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s inspector general, is a “total disaster” for Comey and the FBI, claiming that he “did a great service to the people” in firing the agency’s former chief, Xinhua reported.

According to the highly-anticipated report, Comey was insubordinate but not driven by political bias when making some key decisions as to the probe of Clinton’s email use while she was secretary of state, during the period of the 2016 presidential campaign, which have drawn criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.

The 500-page report also concluded that the Clinton email probe was not tainted by political bias, even though it was critical of two FBI staff members who exchanged highly charged political messages over Trump, finding that their texts created the appearance of bias and cast cloud over the FBI.

During an interview with Fox News Channel at the White House on Friday morning, Trump said “the end result was wrong” and there was “total bias.”

Later, he told other reporters that “Comey was the ring leader of this whole, you know, den of thieves. It was a den of thieves.”

Responding to the report Thursday, Comey tweeted that he respects the Inspector General’s office and that their “conclusions are reasonable,” even though he disagreed with some of them. He said that “people of good faith” can see the “unprecedented situation differently.”

Comey was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017. He has repeatedly criticized Comey for his handling of the Clinton probe and also targeted top officials of the FBI and the DOJ for what he called political bias against him.

Trump’s defenders, including his lawyer and some Republicans, have seized on the report to justify Comey’s ouster, while Democrats were concerned that the report would be used to undercut the ongoing Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose appointment followed Comey’ s departure.

Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation.

Trump, who has repeatedly called the Russia probe “hoax” or “witch hunt,” has ratcheted up pressure on it in the past months. Russia has denied interference in the election campaign.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said on Friday that the report casts doubt on whether the president would ever agree to an interview with Mueller’s team.

Trump himself said he had “reservations” about a sit-down with the investigators.

FBI Director Christopher Wray defended his agency on Thursday, saying that the report only addresses a specific set of facts and the actions of a handful of officials and that “nothing” in it “impugns” the integrity of the FBI workforce as a whole.</s>Doug Criss, CNN - Tough news in housing: There's not a single state, county or metro area in the US where a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage ($7.25 an hour) can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

There seemed to be a little something for everyone in the Justice Department's inspector general report on the FBI's actions during the 2016 election. The report's bottom line: Former FBI Director James Comey was "insubordinate" and made a lot of bad decisions during the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, but there was no evidence he was biased.

There was apparent evidence of bias in the FBI, though, against President Trump. This comes in the form of newly released messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. These two were having an affair, and we'd already seen some of their Trump-bashing text messages. But these new messages -- in which Page asks Strzok whether Trump might win the White House, and Strzok responds, "No. No he won't. We'll stop it" -- are all the fodder Trump and his allies need to keep the "deep state" narrative alive. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is already saying the report proves the special counsel should suspend his Russia investigation.

Now, the most surprising bit from the report? Comey used a personal email account to conduct official government business. A similar allegation against Clinton -- that she used a private email server to handle classified information when she was secretary of state -- was what started this entire investigation. So that led to this priceless tweet from Clinton: "But my emails."

Criticism is heating up over the Trump administration's decision to separate children from parents who cross the border into the US illegally. Rallies against it were held yesterday across the country. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tried to use the Bible to justify the policy, but that only seemed to tick people off more. CNN's Bob Ortega went inside the largest facility where children are being held. It's in a former Walmart superstore in Brownsville, Texas, and holds almost 1,500 kids. Religious groups have spoken out against the policy, and now medical organizations -- like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association -- are sounding the alarm as well.

New York's attorney general has sued the Trump Foundation, along with Donald Trump and his children. The suit alleges the Trumps violated state and federal charities law by using the charitable foundation as "little more than a checkbook," with at least five instances in which tax-deductible donations were used to benefit Trump or his businesses. The suit also alleges unlawful coordination between the foundation and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The attorney general wants the foundation dissolved, $2.8 million in restitution and Trump banned from serving as director of a nonprofit for a decade. The President fired back with fury, using the word "sleazy" to describe those who filed the lawsuit and vowing not to settle the case.

Lawmakers in Argentina voted to relax the country's strict abortion laws. The Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved a bill to legalize abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. But it's a long way from becoming law. The bill now goes to the country's Senate, which is much more conservative. Argentine President Mauricio Macri said he won't veto the bill if it gets through the Senate, even though he opposes abortion. The issue has energized women in Argentina -- a Catholic country and Pope Francis' homeland. Thousands filled the streets during the long hours of tense debate.

Who's up for some news we can all cheer about? How's this: Sex and illicit drug use among American teens is on the decline, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teens "are making better decisions," said one of the authors of the report, which examines data from 2007 to 2017. The news isn't all good though. The number of teens who experience bullying or who've seriously thought about suicide continues to rise.</s>US President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Palm Beach International in West Palm Beach, Florida on April 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGANMANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images ORIG FILE ID: AFP_1461PT

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump blasted former FBI director James Comey on Friday and argued that the long-awaited review of the investigation into the Hillary Clinton email scandal underscored deep problems at the bureau.

Reacting for the first time to the Justice Department inspector general’s review of the 2016 probe, Trump said Comey would “now officially go down as the worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI." He also criticized anti-Trump messages between a pair of FBI officials involved in an extramarital affair.

“The IG Report is a total disaster for Comey, his minions and sadly, the FBI,” Trump posted on Twitter early Friday. “I did a great service to the people in firing him. Good Instincts.”

The inspector general’s report, released Thursday, found that Comey broke FBI and Justice Department protocol in how it handled the Clinton investigation. But it also found that Comey’s actions were not motivated by political bias. Comey said Thursday that he thought the conclusions were “reasonable,” though he disagreed with some of them.

The report uncovered anti-Trump messages between FBI lawyer Lisa Page and counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok. "(Trump's) not ever going to become president, right?" Page wrote in one text message. In response, Strzok, who helped oversee the Clinton investigation, wrote: "No. No he's not. We'll stop it.”

“Doesn’t get any lower than that!” Trump tweeted Friday.

More: Watchdog rebukes ex-FBI director Comey over Clinton email case, but found no evidence of bias

More: 'But my emails': Hillary Clinton claps back after report reveals Comey used Gmail</s>Top congressional allies of President Donald Trump say a watchdog’s finding of anti-Trump bias by officials leading the FBI’s Russia inquiry could taint special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of links between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Though Democrats insisted that the new report, a 500-page review by the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, should have no bearing on Mueller’s work, Republicans across the ideological spectrum appeared increasingly emboldened in their assertions that the special counsel’s investigation had been damaged — perhaps irreversibly so.

“I do think, as you see more evidence of bias against Donald Trump, it gives credence to people who wonder if this is becoming a witch hunt,” said Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the third-ranking Republican in the House, citing the new report.

At the heart of the GOP claims is evidence in the report that the investigator who helped launch the Russia investigation in July 2016 — counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok — was sharply biased against Trump and had even demonstrated “willingness to take official action to impact [Trump’s] electoral prospects.” A voluminous slate of text messages between Strzok and an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, revealed intense anti-Trump hostility and even one message in which Strzok, just days after the launch of the investigation, predicted that “we’ll stop” Trump from becoming president.

Strzok was part of Mueller’s original team of agents when he took over the inquiry in May 2017, though the special counsel removed him quickly after he was alerted to Strzok’s hostility toward Trump.

Trump’s top Capitol Hill allies — a band of House conservatives — said the report bolstered their earlier contention that Mueller’s work is fatally flawed.

“At this point, the Mueller investigation must be reassessed in light of today’s information,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who speaks regularly with Trump.

“It is smoking-gun evidence that the Mueller probe is built on a rotten foundation,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a freshman lawmaker on the House Judiciary Committee who has also earned Trump’s praise for his criticism of the Russia inquiry. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), another Trump backer, said the new report suggested that the investigation “should be dismantled immediately.”

But even Republicans who have been more measured about the special counsel say the fact that Strzok played an early role in the probe could be damaging, should Mueller try to build a case against Trump.

“The inspector general provides a factual basis to question the legitimacy of any findings against Donald Trump, if there are findings against Donald Trump,” said Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), a former U.S. attorney. “Trump-Russia collusion — we now find out that for the first nine months, the investigation was headed by the guy who hated Donald Trump, said he would stop him from becoming president.”

The House Oversight Committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who has long defended the FBI and Mueller, said Strzok’s bias “was so pervasive and toxic as to call into question any other investigations he was part of, including his role in the investigation of what Russia did in 2016.”

The primary conclusion of Horowitz’s report was that despite a series of missteps by senior FBI officials — including the bureau’s director at the time, James Comey, as well as Strzok and others — there’s no evidence that the decision against prosecuting Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server was infected by bias. Strzok’s hostility to Trump, Horowitz concluded, was checked by the fact that multiple investigators, including those who demonstrated impartiality, reviewed investigative decision-making. Comey, in fact, breached protocol at times in ways that hurt Clinton politically, Horowitz found, and damaged the FBI’s reputation in the process. (Comey has said he disagrees with the findings).

Horowitz also concluded that Strzok came to prioritize the Russia probe over his earlier role in the Clinton investigation.

“We did not have confidence that Strzok’s decision was free from bias,” the inspector general concluded.

“While pundits and politicians are using this matter to advance their agendas,” Goelman said in a statement, “the truth about Special Agent Strzok’s character and professionalism is found in the fact that every witness asked by the OIG said that Strzok’s work was never influenced by political views.”

Democrats across Capitol Hill said they saw no reason to suspect that Mueller’s work was compromised.

“Let’s be clear: This report has absolutely nothing to do with the Mueller investigation, which must be allowed to conclude without interference from the president,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a Judiciary Committee member, said in an interview: “People who want to attack the Mueller investigation are going to use this. And the fact that there’s no connection between Strzok having had an early, minor role in the Clinton investigation and none in the Mueller investigation changes their political desire to use it.”

Senators will get the first chance to quiz Horowitz about his conclusions at a Monday hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is portrayed by the report as failing to get a firm answer at two key junctures in the Clinton inquiry.

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch declined to confirm to Grassley in 2015 that an investigation into Clinton’s email server was underway, and the FBI declined to inform Grassley that FBI’s deputy director at the time, Andrew McCabe, had recused himself from the investigation in response to a pre-election query about any measures being taken to stanch the appearance of “political bias,” according to Horowitz’s report.

Grassley’s statement looked ahead to his hearing as a forum to address the substance of the dense inspector general’s report, asserting only that the Justice Department and the FBI had “treated Secretary Clinton with kid gloves instead of impartially investigating.”

Grassley is still weighing a request for immunity from McCabe, who offered earlier this month to before the panel so long as his cooperation couldn’t be used in any future prosecution.

The inspector general referred McCabe for potential criminal charges in conjunction with another report released in April, though Thursday’s report faulted the FBI more so than McCabe for matters related to his recusal from the Clinton probe.

Another senior Judiciary Republican, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), said the day before the report’s release that the inspector general’s review and the Mueller investigation were “two different things.” His statement on Thursday stopped short of alleging that Strzok’s role in the early days of the Russia probe would infect Mueller’s work, decrying a “pervasive culture of misconduct and insubordination throughout the Bureau, for which Director Comey is ultimately accountable.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) agreed that Comey deserved the criticism he got from Horowitz for his missteps. He noted that “none detrimentally affected the Trump campaign. The one injured by anything described in this report was Hillary Clinton.”</s>President Donald Trump on Friday savaged his Justice Department's watchdog report on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as a “horror show,” and disputed its finding that the bureau’s management of the high-profile case was not influenced by political bias.

“The report, the IG report was a horror show. I thought that one sentence of conclusion was ridiculous,” Trump said during an unannounced interview with Fox News on the North Lawn of the White House. “The end result was wrong. There was total bias.”

Echoing his tweets from earlier Friday morning, the president again singled out FBI agent Peter Strzok for special criticism, claiming that the politically charged text messages Strzok sent to FBI attorney Lisa Page during the Clinton email probe exposed an attempt to undermine Trump’s candidacy in 2016.

“They were plotting against my election. Probably it's never happened like that in terms of intelligence and in terms of anything else — but they were actually plotting against my election,” the president said.

In one back-and-forth with Page, Strzok — who was deeply involved in both the Clinton email investigation and Mueller’s separate probe of Russian election interference — seemed to vow to block Trump from winning.

Trump's "not ever going to become president, right? Right?!" she asked via text on August 8, 2016.

"No. No he won't. We'll stop it," Strzok replied.

The two federal employees were carrying out an extra-marital affair during the campaign. Mueller booted Strzok from his team of top investigators in July after it was revealed that he had exchanged texts with another FBI agent criticizing the president.

“The people of the FBI are incredible. I would bet if you took a poll in the FBI I would win that poll by more than anybody's ever won a poll, but the top people were horrible,” Trump said. “I'm actually proud because I beat Clinton dynasty, I beat Bush dynasty, and now, I guess, hopefully, I'm in the process of beating very dishonest intelligence.”</s>Anne Flaherty, Eric Tucker and Chad Day, The Associated Press 

 



WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump disputed findings by the Justice Department on Friday that former FBI Director James Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe was not politically motivated, declaring that the FBI was biased "at the top level" and "plotting against my election."

The department's inspector general report, while critical of the FBI and Comey personally, did not find evidence that political bias tainted the investigation of Clinton's email practices in the months and days leading up to Trump's election.

But on Friday, after tweeting that he did a "great service" to the nation by firing Comey, Trump marched out to the White House North Lawn to talk with "Fox & Friends" for more than half an hour, claiming the report "totally" exonerated him, then pointing to accomplishments he said he's achieved and complaining about not getting proper credit.

Then he turned to other reporters and went over the same list for another 20 minutes.

On the inspector general report that found no political bias in the FBI's final conclusions, he said, "The end result was wrong. There was total bias."

"Comey was the ring leader of this whole, you know, den of thieves. It was a den of thieves," he said.

Trump's comments followed the IG's 500-page report that said Comey was "insubordinate" in his handling of the Clinton investigation because he broke agency protocol. The report also rebuked FBI officials for exchanging anti-Trump text messages during the 2016 campaign.

But it said, "We found no evidence that the conclusions by the prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations; rather, we determined that they were based on the prosecutors' assessment of the facts, the law and past department practice."

Trump's supporters have argued that the findings are proof of political bias at the FBI's highest levels that then tainted the Russia investigation, first led by the FBI and now by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller's probe includes a look into whether Trump himself tried to obstruct justice by firing Comey.

Trump said Friday, as he has before, that the Mueller probe, too, "has been totally discredited."

"The IG Report is a total disaster for Comey, his minions and sadly, the FBI," Trump tweeted earlier. "Comey will now officially go down as the worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI. I did a great service to the people in firing him. Good Instincts."

Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told "Fox & Friends" that the report casts doubt on whether Trump will ever agree to an interview with Mueller's team because "why would he get interviewed by a corrupt investigation?"

Trump himself said he had "reservations."

Thursday's report documents in painstaking detail one of the most consequential investigations in modern FBI history and reveals how the bureau, which for decades has endeavoured to stand apart from politics, came to be entangled in the 2016 presidential election. It underscores efforts by FBI and Justice Department leaders to juggle developments in the Clinton investigation -- she had used private email for government business while secretary of state -- with a separate probe that was then unknown to the American public into potential co-ordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Clinton supporters believe Comey's actions, far from hurting Trump, may well have torpedoed her chance of becoming president.

The IG found the FBI director erred when he announced in July 2016 that Clinton had been "extremely careless" with classified material but would not be charged with any crime, and again months later when Comey told Congress just days before the election that the investigation into Clinton's emails had been reopened. Comey concealed from the Justice Department his plans to make a public announcement until the morning he did so, even though such statements are normally handled by the Justice Department, if at all, the report says.

"We found that it was extraordinary and insubordinate for Comey to do so, and we found none of his reasons to be a persuasive basis for deviating from well-established Department policies in a way intentionally designed to avoid supervision by department leadership over his actions," the report says.

Trump supporters, and then the president himself, quickly focused on the report's recounting of anti-Trump text messages from two FBI officials who worked the Clinton probe and later the Russia case, including one in which an agent says, "We'll stop it," with regard to a possible Trump victory.

The report suggests that text from Peter Strzok, who was later dropped from Mueller's team, "implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate's electoral prospects." It did not find evidence that those views seeped into the investigation.

FBI Director Chris Wray told reporters the FBI accepted the report's findings and was making changes, including requiring further training for FBI employees and re-emphasizing the importance of objectivity. In a New York Times opinion piece released after the report, Comey said he disagreed with some conclusions but respected the watchdog's work.

Also criticized in the report was Comey's decision, despite the discouragement of the Justice Department, to reveal to Congress that the FBI was reopening the investigation following the discovery of new emails.

The FBI obtained a warrant nine days before the presidential election to review those emails, found on the laptop of former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., -- the husband of top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin -- and ultimately determined there was nothing that changed its original conclusion.

The report faulted the FBI for failing to act with more urgency in reviewing emails from Weiner's laptop, saying the inaction had "potentially far-reaching consequences." Clinton supporters say her name could have been cleared well before the election had the FBI moved faster to review the emails. Comey said had he known earlier about the laptop's import, it might have affected his decision to notify Congress.

The report also notes that Comey, despite chiding Clinton for mishandling government business, occasionally used personal email himself to discuss FBI matters.

"But my emails," she said, reacting in a three-word tweet.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick, Steve Braun and Colleen Long contributed to this report.</s>President Donald Trump on Thursday called the just-released report by the Justice Department’s inspector general a "total disaster for James Comey" and his "minions" and defended his controversial decision to fire the former FBI director last year.

"The IG Report is a total disaster for Comey, his minions and sadly, the FBI. Comey will now officially go down as the worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI. I did a great service to the people in firing him," Trump posted. "Good Instincts. Christopher Wray will bring it proudly back!."

Trump also took aim at the report’s disclosure of text messages from two FBI agents that Republicans have seized on as evidence of FBI bias against the president.

"FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who headed the Clinton & Russia investigations, texted to his lover Lisa Page, in the IG Report, that "we’ll stop" candidate Trump from becoming President. Doesn’t get any lower than that!" Trump wrote.

In an interview with "Fox and Friends" outside the White House later Friday morning, Trump said there was "total bias" at the FBI and that the "IG blew it" with its "horror show" report.

When asked if Comey should be "locked up," Trump replied, "I would never want to get involved with that ... but what he did was criminal."

The report released Thursday by the Justice Department's watchdog said that Comey breached protocol and was "insubordinate" but was not politically motivated in his handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe.

Trump told reporters Friday, as he walked to his "Fox and Friends" interview that felt that "wasn't the correct opinion."

"That was the most biased set of circumstances I’ve ever seen in my life. Honestly to read it was very sad," he said.

The report also revealed that Comey used a personal email account to conduct unclassified FBI business, which was "inconsistent" with policy and revealed more controversial text messages between Strzok, and FBI agent, and Page, an FBI lawyer.

"[Trump's] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!" Lisa Page, wrote Strzok.

"No. No he won't. We'll stop it," Strzok responded.

Prior to Trump’s tweets on the IG report, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that it had "reaffirmed the President's suspicions about Comey's conduct and the political bias among some of the members of the FBI."</s>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Comey has come under fire from both Democrats and Republicans

A highly anticipated US Department of Justice report accuses ex-FBI director James Comey of being "insubordinate" but not politically biased.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Mr Comey had broken "dramatically from FBI and department norms" in handling an inquiry into Hillary Clinton's emails.

Mrs Clinton has blamed Mr Comey for her election loss to Donald Trump in 2016.

The report also reveals Mr Comey used a private email account for FBI business.

FBI director Christopher Wray said he accepted the report's findings but he added that nothing in the report pointed towards political bias or impugned the FBI as an institution.

In his report, the inspector general criticised Mr Comey's decision to reveal publicly a week before the election that he had reopened the inquiry into Mrs Clinton's emails, rejecting Mr Comey's argument that he had acted in the interests of transparency.

He found that while Mr Comey's actions were not the result of political bias, "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".

The 500-page report also found "a troubling lack of any direct, substantive communication" between Mr Comey and Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

But the report also touched on text messages between two FBI officials who later worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.

Peter Strzok, who was Mr Mueller's lead agent in the Russian inquiry, was having an affair with Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who also temporarily worked on the Mueller investigation.

When Ms Page asked if Mr Trump would become president, Mr Strzok responded: "No. No he won't. We'll stop it."

The report called this "not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate's electoral prospects".

Image copyright US government Image caption FBI agent Peter Strzok texted his lover that they could "stop" Mr Trump becoming president

Republicans have seized on the messages to argue the FBI investigation was biased against President Donald Trump.

Christopher Wray said employees would be held accountable for any misconduct as a result of the report.

What about Comey's emails?

Potentially embarrassing for the former FBI director is the inspector general's finding that he used a private Gmail address to conduct some official business.

This practice continued while he was investigating Mrs Clinton for using a private email account to handle government secrets - which at the time Mr Comey branded "extremely careless".

When asked about his own email by investigators, Mr Comey said: "I had the sense that it was OK."

He said he only handled non-confidential information on his Gmail, and it was only used for information that would become public anyway, such as speeches or public statements.

But the inspector general said it was "inconsistent" with justice department policy.

Mrs Clinton took to Twitter to make a sarcastic comment.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Comey released a book earlier this year detailing his decisions as FBI director

Fuel for partisan fires

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News

James Comey deviated from FBI policy in his handling of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

This isn't exactly news. In fact, it's something both Democrats and Republicans agree on - although for very different reasons.

Now the inspector general has weighed in, and while he says that it was reasonable for Mr Comey to decide not to charge Hillary Clinton with mishandling classified information, the way he went about announcing that was improper.

What's more, his letter to Congress on the eve of the presidential election represented a "serious error of judgement".

All of this will have Mrs Clinton's supporters nodding in agreement.

Where the matter gets more complicated, however, is in evidence of anti-Trump sentiment the inspector general exposed within the FBI.

While he concluded that it did not bias the investigation into Mrs Clinton, the effect on the Trump-Russia inquiry was not within the inspector general's mandate.

Expect the president and his supporters to amplify Peter Strzok's text message that "we'll stop" Mr Trump from becoming president and point to the inspector general's finding that he may have been biased in prioritising the Trump investigation over the Clinton one in the last month of the presidential campaign.

In the end, the inspector general report will provide fuel for partisan fires on both sides - and it will be very difficult to keep the flames from spreading to Robert Mueller's ongoing special counsel investigation.

Why was there a report?

In announcing the review in January 2017, Mr Horowitz said there was overwhelming demand from lawmakers, members of the public, and "various organisations" to investigate claims of unprofessional behaviour on the part of the justice department and FBI employees.

President Trump is among the most vocal critics of the FBI and the Department of Justice, repeatedly accusing several employees of being biased against him.

The report focuses on Mr Comey's decision in July 2016, when FBI director, to hold a news conference announcing that Mrs Clinton would not be criminally charged for using a private email server for classified information during her time as US secretary of state.

Eleven days before the presidential election, Mr Comey announced that the bureau was investigating new emails related to the Clinton email inquiry.

The inspector general's report calls that decision a "serious error in judgment".

Mrs Clinton and her aides blamed Mr Comey for her subsequent defeat while Democrats pointed out that he remained silent at the time about an investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Mr Trump's decision to fire Mr Comey in May 2017 led the Department of Justice to appoint Mr Mueller, an ex-FBI director, to open an investigation into the Russia allegations.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with the Kremlin, calling the Russia investigation a "witch hunt".

How has Comey reacted?

On Twitter and in a New York Times op-ed, he said he had no regrets about his handling of the Clinton investigation.

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch released a statement outlining how the report upheld her "fidelity to the rule of law", making no mention of any of the criticism it levelled at her.

The president, meanwhile, took to Twitter to brand allegations of Russian collusion as "phony" and "garbage".

On Friday morning, Mr Trump told Fox News that "Comey was the ring leader of a den of thieves".

"What he did was criminal, terrible in terms of the constitution and horrible," Mr Trump said.

He added, however, that he "would never want to get involved in whether Comey should be locked up".</s>A Justice Department official's newly released report found ex-FBI chief James Comey showed no bias when investigating Hillary Clinton's emails in 2016, but it's two text messages in the report that have generated the most buzz.

"(Trump's) not ever going to become president, right?" wrote Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer, in a text to agent Peter Strzok just months before the presidential election. "No. No he's not," Strzok said, per the report. "We'll stop it."

And while the report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded their political views hadn't "directly affected" their work, it slammed the texts as "antithetical to the core values of the FBI.”

Strzok still works at the bureau. Page left last month.

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The report — a 568-page tome — found Comey showed no bias while investigating Clinton's use of a private email server. That said, the report said he did step outside procedural norms, which "negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice." Comey himself called the conclusions "reasonable, even though I disagree with some." White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the report "reaffirms" Trump, who's lambasted the FBI as corrupt. Dive deeper into the Comey report, and how everyone's reacting.

Live from New York, a lawsuit for Trump's foundation

New York's attorney general wants to shut Trump's charity down with a new lawsuit filed Thursday that says the Trump Foundation pushed Trump's self-interests and boosted his presidential bid. The charity's board hadn't met in 19 years, the lawsuit claims, and the foundation funded everything from settlements against Trump golf clubs to ads for Trump hotels. A 2016 foundation fundraiser was directed by his campaign staff and featured checks with his campaign slogan on them — one of myriad alleged violations of law. Trump on Thursday slammed "sleazy New York Democrats," promising, "I won’t settle this case!"

President Trump saluted a North Korean general during his summit with Kim Jong Un this week, an unusual honor for an officer of a despotic regime. The salute, broadcast by North Korea's state media, came as Trump appeared to meet Kim's delegation in Singapore. It's unusual for presidents to salute foreign military members, NBC News noted. And that would be especially true for those of totalitarian states like North Korea. Critics claimed Trump's gesture gave North Korea more reason to claim legitimacy on the world stage, while others called it a reflexive, if unfortunate, snafu.
• It's Flag Day, and the flag is more political than ever</s>President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the Department of Justice’s Inspector General report because it concluded former FBI Director James Comey did not let any political bias impact his decisions.

“The end result was wrong,” Trump told “Fox & Friends’” Steve Doocy. “There was total bias. It was a pretty good report and then I say that the IG blew it at the very end with that statement.”

Although the report was scathing in its assessment of how Comey handled the Clinton email investigation, it largely concluded that Comey’s actions had the effect of hurting Hillary Clinton’s campaign, not Trump’s. – READ MORE
The U.S. Department of Justice publishes a 568-page report by Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz on the FBI's handling of its investigation of Hillary Clinton's email practices. The report is critical of former FBI Director James Comey, accusing him of being "insubordinate", but finding that his actions were not politically biased.