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Trump Says DOJ Conclusion `Ridiculous,' Claims `Total Bias'

Trump Says DOJ Conclusion `Ridiculous,' Claims `Total Bias'

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump called a Justice Department watchdog’s conclusion that there was no political bias in the outcome of the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server “ridiculous” and said he was less likely to agree to be interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a result.

“The IG blew it at the end with that statement” that there was no political bias, Trump said on Fox News in an impromptu interview Friday on the White House lawn. “There was total bias.”

“I would like to talk, but it seems to be very biased,” Trump said of the special counsel’s probe.

Although the report issued Thursday by Inspector General Michael Horowitz doesn’t deal directly with Mueller’s inquiry into Russia meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion with those around Trump, the president and his Republican allies in Congress were primed to seize on it as evidence of poor judgment and anti-Trump bias within the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department.

‘Insubordinate’ Comey

The report found former FBI Director James Comey was “insubordinate” in handling the investigation into Clinton, a Democrat, even though he wasn’t motivated by political bias.

“I think Comey was the ringleader of this whole den of thieves. It was a den of thieves,” Trump said. “What he did was criminal,” he added. “What he did was horrible.”

He said FBI people are "incredible" but hit out at “the scum on top" and said the actions of some were a “real insult.”

“The end result was wrong,” Trump said of the report.

Horowitz said that five FBI officials expressed hostility toward Trump before his 2016 election as president, and disclosed in his report to Congress that their actions have been referred to the bureau for possible disciplinary action.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, responding to the report at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, said report contained “sobering lessons” and “we are going to learn from those lessons.”

Even so, Wrap said “Nothing in this report impugns the integrity of our workforce as whole, or the FBI as an institution.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Derek Wallbank at dwallbank@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Terrence Dopp

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.