The top watchdog at the Bureau of Justice and the director of the FBI on Monday refuted President Donald Trump’s insist on that a Justice Department report made public last week “unconditionally exonerates me.”
Trump had claimed upon release of the more than 500 page suss out on Friday that it cleared him of any collusion with Russia during the 2016 poll or any obstruction of justice after the election.
However, Justice officials panhandled to differ, noting that the report had nothing to do with Special Lawyer Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 appointment.
“We did not look into collusion questions,” Justice Department Inspector Customary Michael Horowitz told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a highly foretold hearing about his report on the FBI’s handling of the 2016 Clinton email scrutiny. “We did not address the credibility of the special counsel’s investigation here,” he said later in the find out.
“I don’t think this report speaks to the special counsel investigation,” FBI Big cheese Christopher Wray said.
The statements from the top officials contradict the president’s own claims approximately the inspector general’s report. Those claims were the basis for Rudy Giuliani, the president’s attorney, to invoke for halting Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe endure week.
Trump had announced a political victory following the release of the Prison Department report.
“I think that the report yesterday, maybe more importantly than anything, it utterly exonerates me,” Trump told reporters during a wandering interview on the Virtuous House North Lawn on Friday. “There was no collusion. There was no bar. And if you read the report, you’ll see that.”
The same day, Giuliani said it was time to “research the investigators.”
“Let’s take a halt to the Mueller investigation. Let’s stop it, and let’s turn it, and get rid of all of the representatives doing the Mueller investigation,” Giuliani said.
The inspector general’s discharge examined specific investigative steps the FBI took during its probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a privileged email server while secretary of state. The report found that there was no documentation that political bias influenced decisions that were navigated as part of that investigation.