Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday that more firings are possible following the release of a forthcoming Department of Justice report of an investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
“If anyone else shows up in this report to have done something that requires termination we will do so,” Sessions told The Hill’s Buck Sexton.
The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on Thursday will release a 500-page report of an investigation into the FBI’s handling of former Secretary of State Clinton’s email investigation.
The report is expected to be heavily critical of former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. (RELATED: Justice Department Watchdog Issues Scathing Report Against Andrew McCabe)
Comey, who was fired on May 9, 2017, will reportedly be criticized for his public statement on July 5, 2016 announcing the closure of the Clinton email probe. Lynch will reportedly be dinged over a meeting she had with former President Bill Clinton on an airplane in Phoenix in late-June 2016.
McCabe has already been criticized by the OIG for authorizing an FBI official to leak information about the Clinton investigation to a Wall Street Journal reporter in October 2016. McCabe allegedly falsely claimed in interviews with FBI and DOJ investigators that he did not authorize the leaks.
Sessions accepted a recommendation to fire McCabe on March 16, two days before McCabe was set to retire.
Sessions also defended Comey’s firing in his interview, calling the decision “the right thing to do.”
Sessions suggested that Comey was fired over his handling of the Clinton email probe, though President Donald Trump has suggested in the past that he fired the former FBI official because of his refusal to publicly announce that Trump was not under investigation in the Russia investigation.
“The facts were pretty clear on it,” Sessions said of Comey’s ouster. “He made a big mistake and he testified only a few weeks before that termination that he would do it again [announce reopening the Clinton probe] if he had the opportunity. So we felt like there was a serious breach of discipline within the department if we allowed him to continue.”
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