President Trump said Friday the inspector general report on the Clinton email investigation “totally exonerated” him from any wrongdoing in his decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey, who he described as “the ring leader of a den of thieves.”
“I did nothing wrong. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. The IG report yesterday went a long way to show that,” Trump told reporters following a “Fox and Friends” interview from the North Lawn of the White House.
The president said he was pleased with the Justice Department’s internal review of the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information. But he expressed disappointment in the report’s conclusion that political bias at the FBI did not negatively impact the probe.
“The end result was wrong. There was total bias. It was a pretty good report and then … the IG blew it at the very end of that statement,” he said, describing the report as “a horror show.”
[Viva le resistance: How political bias infected FBI Trump, Clinton probes]
Trump pointed specifically to a text FBI agent Peter Strzok sent to a colleague with whom he was romantically involved, saying they would “stop” then-candidate Trump from making it to the White House. The message was first made public in Thursday’s report.
“The IG report totally exonerates. The head investigator is saying we have to stop Trump from becoming president,” he said, adding that he “beat” the Clinton and Bush dynasties and “right now, hopefully, I’m in the process of beating the dishonest intelligence [community].”
Trump also said the bias shown in the report has made him increasingly hesitant to give an interview to special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation.
“I would like to talk, but it seems to be very biased,” he said.
Trump was briefed on the contents of the inspector general report by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ahead of its release Thursday. He claimed Rosenstein was “not very happy” with the findings.
