FBI Sat On Weiner Probe For A Month To Prioritize Russia Probe |

Politics

FBI Sat On Weiner Probe For A Month To Prioritize Russia Probe

FBI HQ | Circa October 2005 | I, Aude [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], from Wikimedia Commons

Luke Rosiak

June 14, 2018 1:50 PM ET

The FBI sat on the revelation that previously-unknown emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server were recovered on the laptop of sex-crimes convict Anthony Weiner for just under a month, according to a review by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General.

The stated rationale was to prioritize the Russia investigation, which was a decision made by Peter Strzok, a top FBI agent involved in both investigations, and who texted his lover that he would “stop” Donald Trump from becoming president.

The IG does “not have confidence that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on the Midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias,” the report says. The investigation into Clinton’s email server had the codename “Mid-Year Examination.”

The FBI also gave the IG several other explanations for the delay in moving on the Weiner development, but the IG rejected all of them. It found it was potentially out of political bias.

“It is not only indicative of a bias state of mind, but, even more seriously, it implies willingness to take” action, the report says.

The findings are an ironic end to Clinton’s claims that the FBI treated her unfairly by re-opening the probe into the casual manner with which the former secretary of state treated classified info just weeks before the 2016 election.

According to its own stated rationale, if the FBI hadn’t been so intent on finding damaging information on Trump, it turns out, the announcement could have been made with more time for the Clinton campaign to respond and for voters to move on from the surprising twist before casting their ballots.

Anthony Weiner was married to Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and is now in prison after sending sexual texts to an underage girl.

Then-FBI Director James Comey notified Congress that he was re-opening the probe into Clinton’s server on October 28, 11 days before the election. Bill and Hillary Clinton have blamed Comey’s actions for her electoral loss.

But the report reveals that it was Strzok — whose texts reveal that he decidedly favored Clinton over Trump — who caused the problematic timing.

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