Election 2016

Trump’s Much-Hyped IG Report Will Say Comey Helped Trump

Written by SK Ashby

Trump has repeatedly hyped an upcoming report from the Justice Department's inspector general because he believes it will make former FBI Director James Comey look bad.

That may be the case, but not for the reasons he thinks.

According to ABC News, the inspector general's report will call out Comey for helping Trump win by failing to follow protocol.

The draft of Horowitz's wide-ranging report specifically called out Comey for ignoring objections from the Justice Department when he disclosed in a letter to Congress just days before the 2016 presidential election that FBI agents had reopened the Clinton probe, according to sources. Clinton has said that letter doomed her campaign.

Before Comey sent the letter to Congress, at least one senior Justice Department official told the FBI that publicizing the bombshell move so close to an election would violate longstanding department policy, and it would ignore federal guidelines prohibiting the disclosure of information related to an ongoing investigation, ABC News was told.

The inspector general's report also reportedly says Comey was "insubordinate" and did not respect the authority of the Justice Department.

I'm not necessarily sure that helps Trump's case against Comey either because that would have been the Justice Department under President Obama that Comey defied.

With all of that said, just because the report makes Trump's specific case against Comey look even weaker does not mean Trump won't try to use it against him. I expect Trump will vaguely tweet about the report before moving on to the next stupid thing.