WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that a Justice Department watchdog report issued one day earlier showed the FBI was plotting against him during the runup to the 2016 presidential election.
In a wide-ranging interview on "Fox and Friends," the president said the report showed people "at the top level" of the FBI were "plotting against my election."
The 568-page inspector general report issued Thursday criticized former FBI Director James Comey for his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while in office. However, the report did not find evidence that Comey was motivated by political bias or preference in his decisions.
568 pages in all - here is the DOJ IG report on the handling of the Clinton email investigation https://t.co/JapuK6Fept
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) June 14, 2018
"The end result was wrong. I mean, there was total bias," Trump said on "Fox and Friends."
"I beat Clinton dynasty. I beat Bush dynasty, and now, I guess, hopefully I'm in the process of beating very dishonest intelligence."
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 15, 2018
WATCH: Steve Doocy's full interview with President @realDonaldTrump on Fox and Friends - Part 1. pic.twitter.com/wJwiVUNh8x
He told reporters gathered on the front lawn of the White House that the inspector general report was a “horror show,” but he insisted that it “totally exonerates” him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and its possible ties to Trump and his campaign officials.
“What you really see is … bias against me and millions, and tens of millions of my followers,” the president said. “That is really a disgrace.”
President Trump says he believes the Department of Justice's Inspector General report on the FBI's actions in the Hillary Clinton email investigation "totally exonerates" him and that if you polled "the real FBI, those guys love me, and I love them" https://t.co/edfEuy8xUj pic.twitter.com/ARbqXoDFoN
— CNN (@CNN) June 15, 2018
Included in the report released Thursday were politically charged text messages sent between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The messages were critical of Trump and sent between Strzok and Page in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
Strzok had been assigned to work on Mueller's team, but he was removed from the investigation last summer after the anti-Trump messages surfaced. Page had already finished her stint on Mueller's team by the time the messages were found, according to CNN.
Earlier Friday, Trump took to Twitter to slam Strzok and Page, pointing to a message Strzok sent in which he promised Page that "we'll stop" Trump from becoming president. The message was sent in August 2016 after Page asked Strzok whether Trump would become president, according to Cox Media Group's Jamie Dupree.
“No. No he’s not,” Strzok answered. “We’ll stop it.”
Trump criticized the exchange Friday, writing on Twitter that it “doesn’t get any lower than that!”
FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who headed the Clinton & Russia investigations, texted to his lover Lisa Page, in the IG Report, that “we’ll stop” candidate Trump from becoming President. Doesn’t get any lower than that!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2018
Mueller’s investigation, launched in May 2017, has led to charges against several people connected to the Trump presidential campaign and its officials.
The president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has pleaded not guilty to a variety of money laundering and other criminal charges stemming from the probe. Five people -- including former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos -- have pleaded guilty to charges in the probe and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Cox Media Group