The highly anticipated OIG report from the Justice Department's internal watchdog will hit tomorrow, on President Trump's 72nd birthday. The 400-500 page document, prepared by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, will specifically address the DOJ/FBI's conduct surrounding the Hillary Clinton email investigation. It will not cover any of the FISA abuse / surveillance on the Trump campaign - for which a separate OIG investigation was launched in late March.
Here's what to look for:
Hillary Clinton's exoneration letter
In December, Congressional investigators discovered that edits made to former FBI Director James Comey's statement exonerating Hillary Clinton for transmitting classified info over an unsecured, private email server went far beyond what was previously known.
While Comey's original draft criminalized Clinton's behavior by using the term "gross negligence" and other language supportive of criminal charges, the FBI's top brass passed the draft around and neutered it. Instead of "grossly negligent," Clinton's conduct was reclassified as "extremely careless" - a term which carries no legal significance.
According to an Attorney briefed on the matter, "extremely careless" is in fact a defense to "gross negligence": "What my client did was 'careless', maybe even 'extremely careless,' but it was not 'gross negligence' your honor." The FBI would have no option but to recommend prosecution if the phrase "gross negligence" had been left in.
18 U.S. Code § 793 "Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information" specifically uses the phrase "gross negligence." Had Comey used the phrase, he would have essentially declared that Hillary had broken the law.
Involved in the edits were Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, E.W. "Bill" Priestap, Jonathan Moffa and DOJ Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson.
Immunity agreements
The FBI granted immunity in June 2016 to top Obama advisor Cheryl Mills and aide Heather Samuelson - who helped decide which Clinton emails were destroyed before turning over the remaining 30,000 records to the State Department. Of note, the FBI agreed to destroy evidence on devices owned by Mills and Samuelson which were turned over in the investigation.
The FBI also granted immunity to the guy who wiped Hillary's server with "BleachBit", Paul Combetta.
For those who "do not recall" the specific timeline leading up to Combetta wiping Hillary's server, here is a breif recap:
December 2014 / January 2015 – “Undisclosed Clinton staff member” instructs Combetta to remove archives of Clinton emails from PRN server but he forgets.
March 4, 2015 – Hillary receives subpoena from House Select Committee on Benghazi instructing her to preserve and deliver all emails from her personal servers.
March 25, 2015 – Combetta has a conference call with “President Clinton’s Staff.”
March 25 – 31, 2015 – Combetta has “oh shit” moment and realizes he forgot to wipe Hillary’s email archive from the PRN server back in December…which he...