Former FBI Director James Comey seems to be trying to put a highly critical report by the Justice Department’s watchdog firmly behind him – by publishing a bizarre photo of himself standing next to a giant gnome.
The 6ft-9in lawyer, whose actions over the Hillary Clinton email probe were branded ‘insubordinate’ in Thursday’s report, took to Instagram later that day to post the snap of him grinning next to the garden ornament with the caption ‘Comey’s Gnomey’.
Comey appeared next to the bountifully-bearded gnome in a suit and a white shirt unbuttoned at the neck, and even completed the photo with a Trump-style pointing gesture towards his unlikely companion.
Ex-FBI director James Comey, whose actions over the Hillary Clinton email probe were branded ‘insubordinate’ in Thursday’s report, took to Instagram later that day to post the snap of him grinning next to the garden ornament with the caption ‘Comey’s Gnomey’
The ex-FBI chief had commented on the report earlier, when he said he disagrees with some of its conclusions, but respects the inspector general’s work and believes the conclusions are ‘reasonable’.
He tweeted to say ‘people of good faith’ could see the ‘unprecedented situation differently’, and also penned an op-ed in the New York Times repeating similar views.
The 500-page report criticized Comey for repeatedly breaking with Justice Department protocol in his handling of the email probe in the explosive final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.
It also sharply rebuked FBI officials who traded politically charged, anti-Trump text messages even as the investigation into the campaign was under way.
The report said the FBI director erred when he announced in July 2016 that Mrs Clinton (pictured in New York on April 6) had been ‘extremely careless’ with classified material but would not be charged with any crime
The report documents in painstaking detail one of the most consequential investigations in modern FBI history and reveals how the bureau, which for decades has endeavoured to stand apart from politics, came to be entangled in the 2016 presidential election.
It underscores efforts by FBI and Justice Department leaders to juggle developments in the Clinton investigation – she had used private email for government business while secretary of state – with a separate probe that was then unknown to the American public into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Mr Comey, whom Mr Trump fired shortly after taking office, bore the brunt of the report’s criticism.
It says the FBI director erred when he announced in July 2016 that Mrs Clinton had been ‘extremely careless’ with classified material but would not be charged with any crime, and again months later when he told Congress just days before the election that the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails had been reopened.
Mr Comey concealed from the Justice Department his plans to make a public announcement until the morning he did so, even though such statements are normally handled by the Justice Department, if at all, the report says.
‘We found that it was extraordinary and insubordinate for Comey to do so, and we found none of his reasons to be a persuasive basis for deviating from well-established Department policies in a way intentionally designed to avoid supervision by department leadership over his actions,’ the report says.
The snap came on Thursday as fallout from the report continued in Washington. On Friday, Trump added to the war of words by branding Comey ‘scum’ on the top of the FBI
On Thursday, Trump lashed Comey as the ‘worst leader, by far, in the history of the FBI’ and said he had done a ‘great service’ in firing him
Though it says those mistakes were not politically motivated, Trump supporters seized on the report’s description of Mr Comey as ‘insubordinate’.
And they quickly focused on the report’s recounting of anti-Trump text messages from two FBI officials who worked on the Clinton probe and later the Russia case, including one in which an agent says ‘We’ll stop it’, with regard to a possible Trump victory.
The report suggests that text from Peter Strzok, who was later dropped from Mr Mueller’s team, ‘implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects’.
It did not find evidence that those views seeped into the investigation.
Trump tweeted after the report was published to say Comey would go down as the ‘worst FBI leader in history’ before adding, ‘I did a great service to the people in firing him’.
Comey had commented on the report earlier, when he said he disagrees with some of its conclusions. He is pictured during an interview in Washington DC on May 8
Comey said ‘people of good faith’ can see the ‘unprecedented situation differently’, and also penned an op-ed in the New York Times repeating similar views
On Thursday, Clinton responded to the news in James Comey used his private Gmail account for FBI business while investigating her for doing almost the exact same thing
The President then appeared on the White House lawn on Friday to brand Comey the ‘scum’ on the top of the FBI.
FBI director Chris Wray told reporters the FBI accepted the report’s findings and was making changes, including requiring further training for FBI employees and re-emphasising the importance of objectivity.
The report also note that Mr Comey, despite chiding Mrs Clinton for mishandling government business, occasionally used personal email himself to discuss FBI matters.
‘But my emails,’ she said, reacting in a three-word tweet.