*By Alisha Haridasani*
The way that former FBI director James Comey handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server broke protocol and damaged the Justice Department's reputation as an impartial law enforcement arm, the department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz said.
“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,” Horowitz wrote in his highly-anticipated [report](https://www.justice.gov/file/1071991/download) released on Thursday.
The 500-page report also criticized two FBI agents ー Peter Strzok and Lisa Page ー for exchanging politically charged text messages. Many of those texts had been released, but in one previously undisclosed message, Strzok said the FBI "will stop" Trump from winning. "The conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation," the report said.
But, the Justice Department investigator concluded that Comey was not motivated by politics, despite the views of some members of the team.
"We found that Comey largely based his decisions on what he believed was in the FBI's institutional interests and would enable him to continue to effectively lead the FBI," the report said.
"I do not agree with all of the inspector general's conclusions, but I respect the work of his office and salute its professionalism," Comey said in a response to the report in [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/opinion/comey-clinton-inspector-general.html).
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the report on Monday. The report's findings will likely reanimate Senators on both sides of the aisle who were equally critical of Comey’s actions ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Republicans, especially President Trump, have said Comey’s decision not to recommend charges against Clinton was a clear ploy to help her win. Democrats point to Comey's public announcement a week before election day that he was reopening the investigation because of new evidence as the reason Clinton lost.
The inspector general's report may also give Trump more ammunition to try to discredit the Justice Department and the FBI as they continue to investigate whether his campaign worked with Russia during the 2016 race. Trump said he fired Comey last year over his role in the Russia investigation, which led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.
A new poll finds most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
From Wall Street trading floors to the Federal Reserve to economists sipping coffee in their home offices, the first Friday morning of the month typically brings a quiet hush around 8:30 a.m. eastern, as everyone awaits the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report.
The Supreme Court is allowing Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now.
Rep. John Moolenaar has requested an urgent briefing from the White House after Trump supported a deal giving Americans a majority stake in TikTok.
A new report finds the Department of Government Efficiency’s remaking of the federal workforce has battered the Washington job market and put more households in the metropolitan area in financial distress.
A new poll finds U.S. adults are more likely than they were a year ago to think immigrants in the country legally benefit the economy. That comes as President Donald Trump's administration imposes new restrictions targeting legal pathways into the country. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey finds Americans are more likely than they were in March 2024 to say it’s a “major benefit” that people who come to the U.S. legally contribute to the economy and help American companies get the expertise of skilled workers. At the same time, perceptions of illegal immigration haven’t shifted meaningfully. Americans still see fewer benefits from people who come to the U.S. illegally.
Shares of Tylenol maker Kenvue are bouncing back sharply before the opening bell a day after President Donald Trump promoted unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism. Trump told pregnant women not to use the painkiller around a dozen times during the White House news conference Monday. The drugmaker tumbled 7.5%. Shares have regained most of those losses early Tuesday in premarket trading.
