Damning report condemns FBI’s Comey over handling of Clinton email investigation

'By departing so clearly and dramatically from FBI and department norms, the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI'

James Comey speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing (AP)

Former FBI director James Comey damaged the credibility of the agency by failing to follow standard protocol in his investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a damning report from the US Justice Department.

Mr Comey was criticised for dramatically departing from normal procedures in a move which called into question whether the FBI could be seen as "fair administrators of justice", according to the report, although he was cleared of acting with political bias.

"Then-Director Comey ... engaged in his own subjective, ad hoc decision making," the report written by the inspector general of the Justice Department reads. "In so doing, we found that Comey largely based his decisions on what he believed was in the FBI’s institutional interests and would enable him to continue to effectively lead the FBI as its Director.

“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,” according to the report, which was sent to Congress on Thursday.

The report examined the way the FBI handled the investigation into Ms Clinton's use of a private email server during her time serving as secretary of State during the Obama administration, and whether text messages sent by FBI employees during investigations related to the 2016 campaign had impacted active investigations.

The report notes that the email investigation – which saw some of the heaviest coverage in the media of any campaign issue – was "one of the highest profile investigations in FBI history".

The internal investigation into Mr Comey's behaviour stems from at least two instances during the 2016 campaign that may have had a massive impact on the outcome of the election.

The first, on 5 July , 2016, saw Mr Comey hold a press conference to announce that he would not recommend any charges against Ms Clinton for her use of the private email server, because his investigation into the matter had not identified any criminal processing of classified information on the servers – which could have included deliberate transfer of classified information on the servers, or grossly-negligent transferring of that information.

During that press conference, Mr Comey said that they did not find evidence that would lead to criminal charges, but that they did find "evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information".

The second occurred on 28 October of that year, when Mr Comey sent a letter to Congress notifying the legislative body that the FBI was reviewing emails obtained on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, who was married to Ms Clinton's close aide Huma Abedin, and who had been investigated related to allegations that he had sent sexually inappropriate photographs to a minor.

The announcement that the email investigation was being renewed – or at least that some emails were being reviewed – sent a political shock wave through the 2016 election with less than two weeks before election day.

Before making those announcements, the new report says, Mr Comey did not confer with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch about the nature of his disclosures, as is normal protocol.

"We found it extraordinary that, in advance of two such consequential decisions, the FBI Director decided that the best course of conduct was to not speak directly and substantively with the Attorney General about how best to navigate these decisions and mitigate the resulting harms, and that Comey’s decision resulted in the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General concluding that it would be counterproductive to speak directly with the FBI Director," the report says.

Mr Comey, in response to the release of the report, released a statement of his own, noting that he does not agree with everything the inspector general found but saying that he respects the institution's work.

"I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review. The conclusions are reasonable, even though I disagree with some," Mr Comey wrote in a tweet.

"People of good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently. I pray no Director faces it again. Thanks to IG’s people for hard work."

The report also addressed concerns that private text messages and instant messages sent by FBI investigators showed bias against candidates – particularly then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump – but ultimately concluded that the messages did not impact official FBI business, even though they did serve to damage the agency's reputation.

Texts from Assistant Director Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the special counsel and deputy director, were singled out in the report.

"[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” one of those texts, from Ms Page, to Mr Stzok, said.

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

But, although the report notes those clearly display bias from those two agents, neither had sole influence over decisions in the investigation, and neither appeared to let that bias influence the work of the investigation, the report said.

"These messages reflected political opinions in support of former Secretary Clinton and against her then political opponent, Donald Trump. Some of these text messages and instant messages mixed political commentary with discussions about the ... investigation, and raised concerns that political bias may have impacted investigative decisions," the report reads.

The inspector general's report offers several changes to FBI policies to address the issues, including a rewrite of guidances for speaking publicly about individuals who have not been charged following an FBI investigation.