Trump: IG report wrong, ‘scum on top’ at FBI
President Trump on Friday declared that the conclusion of a report by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog was “wrong,” insisting that it showed that top FBI officials acted with political bias against him.
“The end result was wrong. I mean, there was total bias,” Trump said in an interview from the White House lawn with “Fox & Friends,” pointing to text messages from FBI official Peter Strzok disclosed in the report.
The report by the Justice Department’s inspector general “was a horror show,” Trump said, and its conclusion “was ridiculous.”
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The president had sought to distance himself from the FBI under Comey, and said that he would win a poll of the “real FBI” — “not the scum on top.”
“If you took a poll at the FBI, [I would win],” Trump said. “I mean the real FBI, not the scum on top.”
The president also said the report “totally exonerates” him of any wrongdoing.
“I think that the report yesterday — maybe more importantly than anything — it totally exonerates me. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. And if you read the report, you’ll see that,” Trump said.
The IG report, released on Thursday, faulted former FBI Director James Comey with “insubordinate” behavior during the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.
But it also found no evidence that political bias at the FBI influenced the outcome of that investigation.
The report also disclosed text messages exchanged between Strzok and another FBI official, Lisa Page, in which Strzok wrote that they would “stop” Trump from becoming president.
–Updated at 10:20 a.m.
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