US Justice Dept watchdog: Comey deviated from FBI norms but no bias

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey deviated from the bureau's norms in handling a probe into former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but there is no evidence his actions before the 2016 election were motivated by political bias, a Justice Department watchdog report concludes, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

"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," Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in the report's conclusions, which were obtained by Bloomberg.

The report by Horowitz on the FBI's handling of a probe into Clinton's emails is due to be released publicly at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT). It arose from a review he launched about a week before President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.

RELATED: James Comey's life after President Trump fired him as FBI director

The inquiry has focused on whether public statements made by Comey about Democrat Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state were based on "improper considerations."

A long-serving law enforcement official, Comey became a controversial figure in the 2016 election, drawing accusations from both Republicans and Democrats that his handling of the Clinton investigation influenced the campaign.

He later headed a separate probe into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia. Trump fired him as head of the FBI in 2017.

In July 2016, Comey held an unusual news conference to explain why the FBI would not be recommending criminal charges against Clinton over her use of the private server, instead of a State Department server, for some official business.

He chastised Clinton for being "extremely careless" but said there was insufficient evidence to charge her with a federal crime. That upset Republicans who said Comey's statement could have helped Clinton's election campaign.

But in October 2016, less than two weeks before Election Day, Comey sent members of Congress a letter disclosing that the probe was being reopened after new emails were found on the computer of the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Clinton has since said that Comey's letter contributed to her unexpected defeat by Trump. Two days before the Nov. 8 election, Comey said the FBI had found no additional evidence in the new emails.

John Podesta, who ran the Clinton campaign, said "the report demonstrates beyond doubt" that Comey was unfair to Clinton by announcing details of the email investigation during the campaign while not revealing the presence of the separate probe beginning in July 2016 into the Trump campaign and Russia.

"This report confirms what we have known for a long time - that the FBI inappropriately applied a double standard to the Clinton and Trump investigations which hurt her and helped elect him," Podesta told Reuters.

FBI LEAKS?

Trump's allies have signaled they will use the Horowitz report to press their argument that Comey did not act properly while overseeing the Russia probe.

The Inspector General also examined whether FBI employees leaked information about investigations of the Clinton Foundation charitable organization and emails in a bid to help Trump's campaign.

Law enforcement officials previously told Reuters the information was leaked to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an adviser to the Trump campaign. He now represents Trump in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

The report will also discuss Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two FBI staffers whom Republicans accused of bias against Trump after thousands of text messages sent via their work-issued mobile phones were made public.

RELATED: Inside the White House on the day Trump fired James Comey

While some of their messages were anti-Trump, others took aim at lawmakers such as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, whom Clinton defeated for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Page and Strzok were involved in both the Clinton and Russia probes. Mueller removed Strzok from his team after Horowitz disclosed the texts to him.

Comey was fired by Trump in May 2017 while leading the investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, an allegation the president has denied. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Mark Hosenball; Editing by John Walcott and Alistair Bell)