DOJ report on FBI slightly less than Trump was looking for

But bad, nonetheless.

The Justice Department's internal watchdog has concluded that the FBI's most controversial decisions during the 2016 presidential election were not politically motivated, but the FBI's reputation has nonetheless been hurt by the actions of some of its agents – findings that come after a nearly two-year assault on the FBI by Donald Trump and other Republicans alleging FBI officials allowed political considerations to influence investigations.

[...]

Horowitz's report said [agent Page's anti-Trump messages back and forth with agent Strzok were] "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. This is antithetical to the core values of the FBI and the Department of Justice."

[...]

[I]n the nearly 500-page report released Thursday, Inspector General Michael Horowitz said he could not discount that political bias played a role in the FBI's delay in analyzing a laptop with potential evidence tied to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

  ABC

I have to admit that one would be hard to explain otherwise, but then Comey turned around and announced that the investigation was being reopened, which was harmful in the opposite direction. So, it looks like there was a large clusterfuck in the FBI. I'm not sure that's actionable.

I didn't know about this exchange between the two agents:

"[Trump's] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!" Page wrote to Strzok in August 2016, as disclosed for the first time in Horowitz's report.

Strzok, at the time still leading the FBI probe into Clinton, responded: "No. No he's not. We'll stop it."

"We'll stop it"??? That does indeed look bad. On the other hand, Strzok was fired when Comey learned of these messages.  *Correction:  Mueller took Strzok off the case.  Comey was already gone.

Horowitz found anti-Trump messages from two other FBI agents and another FBI attorney that his report said "cast a cloud over the FBI's handling" of the Clinton case. In addition, "the damage caused by their actions extends far beyond the scope of the [Clinton] investigation and goes to the heart of the FBI's reputation for neutral factfinding and political independence," the report continued.

But, the report made clear, "our review did not find evidence to connect the political views expressed in these messages to the specific investigative decisions that we reviewed."

So, even finding that how Comey handled the Clinton investigation was "extraordinary and insubordinate", and "that Comey made a serious error of judgment," Horowitz found that "'judgment calls' made by those investigat[ing] Clinton 'were not unreasonable,' and the ultimate decision not to charge Clinton 'was consistent with the Department’s historical approach in prior cases under different leadership'." Yeah, because look at Alberto Gonzales, right?

So not quite the support Trump was looking for from the DOJ. He won't be happy.

But what does James Comey think?

We'll have to wait until His Lardship watches Fox News' report on the report before we get his tweet opinion.

The full report is here, where you can read it for yourself.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 6/15:

His Lardship is unhappy with the conclusions.