"W$3 hat they did was incredible and a real insult to millions of people that voted in that election on both sides", Trump said.
Trump and his allies have used the texts as ammunition in their ongoing attacks on the special counsel, who is leading the FBI investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin as well as potential obstruction of justice on the part of the president.
"[Comey] engaged in his own subjective ad hoc decision-making" and concludes that while Comey was not politically biased, his decision-making "negatively impacted the perception of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department [of Justice] as fair administrators of justice". That probe includes a look at whether Trump himself tried to obstruct justice by firing Comey.
"The IG Report is a total disaster for Comey, his minions and sadly, the FBI", Trump tweeted earlier. "The IG report yesterday went a long way to show that", Trump said on the White House North Lawn. I did a great service to the people in firing him.
Trump, appearing before reporters after the interview with "Fox and Friends", sought to further discredit the probe, saying the "problem with the Mueller investigation is everybody's got massive conflicts".
According to Comey, his decision to announce the reopening publicly was based on the assumption Clinton would win the election, and motivated by a desire not to be seen as helping her. Even so, the report did not conclude that Comey held a bias that influenced his decisions.
Wray said during a news conference Thursday that he takes the report "very seriously and we accept its findings and recommendations".
European Union backs Canadian leader Trudeau after Trump's sharp words
Trump swiftly responded to Trudeau by upending the communiqué in a series of tweets Saturday evening. That Canada could be considered a national security threat to the United States is inconceivable".
Comey aside, the report left lingering suspicions of bias on the part of FBI investigators, citing text messages between two, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who worked on both the Clinton and Russian Federation investigations and who were having an affair during that period.
But Comey and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were heavily faulted, with Comey, a strong critic of Trump, seen as repeatedly skirting agency rules and procedures, and two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents under him showing in personal messages a "willingness to take official action to impact" Trump's chances in the election.
It did not find evidence that those views seeped into the investigation.
Trump said that Comey's replacement, Christopher A. Wray, "will bring it proudly back!"
Comey also wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times responding to the report's findings.
He also mocked Comey for using a private email address to conduct business on the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of private email to conduct business. Most often, the meme contrasts how coverage of the investigation likely affected the election outcome (despite the fact that she was cleared of wrongdoing), with perceived hypocrisy or wrongdoing by Trump or other republicans.
The report found the decision not to prosecute was proper.
