Confirm or deny the existence of an Ongoing Investigation, whether there is one or isnt one. One of the main lessons of this report the only reason i raise it is it was an open hearing. Former director comey said there was an internal investigation. There were a number of things i probably would have done differently. George . Do you want to take a stab at that . Im certainly not going to comment on whether or not there is an open or Ongoing Investigation one way or the other. We have, over the years, refused to do that and im not going to change the policy now. You and i have known each other a long time. I assume thats the answer you give. But here we know about mr. Strzoks private life and we know about his Text Messages, but we know nothing about the leaks from fbi personnel who are actively taking steps to sway the election to mr. Trump. You did not include investigation of those leaks in your report, is that correct . Thats correct for the reasons that we noted, that were not able to speak to work we might have ongoing. I would hope that the investigation is ongoing and at some point you report to us. Because it was generally accepted around here that leaks were going to mr. Giuliani during the campaign. In fact, mr. Giuliani basically said so on tv. Now, the president says that this report totally exonerates him and says there is no collusion with the russians. Inspector general horowitz, did your report even consider the question of collusion . Our report consisted of the departments handling of the clinton investigation. It touched on the Text Messages in that julyaugust time period, and then the decision that was made in october about whether to proceed or not proceed with the weiner laptop. That was the sum and total. But there was nothing in the report that exonerates the president from any question of collusion with the russians. This says nothing one way or the other, is that correct . We did not look into collusion questions. So i just note that the president says this totally exonerates him even though there is no conclusion one way or the other about the question of collusion with the russians. Now, director wray, after learning that the fbi utilized a confidential source during the early stages of the russia investigation, the president described as a scandal bigger than watergate. Im one of the few people here that in fact, the only person in the senate that remembers directly knowledge of watergate. I tend to disagree with him. I would say the Confidential Sources are a routine investigative tool. Ive got a document that is publicly available in the fbis online foyer library. Its a redacted interview summary from the clinton investigation. It shows that the fbi used a confidential human source in september 2015 well into secretary Clintons Campaign for president. So director, there is a possible use of Confidential Sources in either the clinton or russia investigation and does it show any collusion by the fbi . As you know, we use Confidential Sources covering the waterfront, and its a very important tool in that mission. Prosecutors know you probably dont have a sufficient prosecution of Confidential Sources. Now, director wray, the president said on friday that the Mueller Investigation has been totally discredited by the Inspector Generals report. I asked you last month before the Appropriations Committee about the russia investigation. You confirmed at that time you do not believe it is a witch hunt. Now, the special counsel investigation has already resolved the indictment of 20 individuals, three russia companies. Do you have any reason to believe that this investigation has been discredited . Senator, as i said to you last month, and as i said before, i did not believe special counsel mueller is on a witch hunt. Thank you, and i appreciate that. And you were very direct in both occasions. Now, the mistakes made by director comey during the Hillary Clinton investigation didnt exist in a vacuum. Republicans in congress relentlessly pressured the fbi to release details concerning the clinton investigation, and im deeply concerned that were repeating these mistakes today. The white houseworking with wo allies in congress have been sufficiently working on the investigation. General wray in pushback has been threatened with impeachment. Thats outrageous, obviously something that will never happen. But some accommodations have been made, and members of congress eager to politicize any details, review of the fisa application and learn the confide identity of a confidential source. Are you confident that will not jeopardize the fbi in the future . Senator, i think we have two competing entities we have to balance. We have congressional oversight. Thats part of our job. But we also have an obligation to protect sources and methods, to protect Ongoing Investigations, to respect things like grand jury secrecy. Its a challenge at times to do both, but im confident we can do both as long as both sides are willing to Work Together on it and im committed to trying to do both. Thank you very much. Senator cornyn . General horowitz, i believe your report summarizes as regards to former director comey, that he concealed from the attorney general his intention to make a unilateral declaration or declination of intent to pursue charges against secretary clinton. He made inappropriate comments on uncharged conduct. He erred when he said that he usurped the role of the attorney general in the department of justice when he said no rule would bring charges under the facts and he undermined the department of justices norms, is that correct . Thats correct. I think your position was certainly reinforced by oped pieces, by general holder when he wrote an oped in the Washington Post and by jamie gurrilik and James Thompson who wrote james comey is damaging our democracy. The rosenstein memo that was written by the Deputy Attorney general, forwarded to the attorney general and then attached, i think, to a letter whereby the president informed mr. Comey that his services as director of the fbi were being terminated are substantially similar to what you found in your report. Correct . I havent gone back recently and read the letter. I think its a straightforward comparison that could be made about it. Ill leave it at that. The way i read it, it looks to me like you validated what Deputy Attorney rosenstein said in his memorandum. Would you dispute that or do you agree with it . I wouldnt dispute it but i havent gone back recently and reread it. I think whats so disturbing about this era in the fbi leadership is it just seemed to be a culture of impunity where the rules did not apply to the director and his Leadership Team, but obviously were designed to apply to everybody else. By the way, i agree with director wray wihen he talks about rank and file professionals. Were not talking about them. Were talking about a group that somehow went terribly awry in the Leadership Team of director comey. General horowitz, you mentioned that you found no evidence of bias in the investigation, but you qualify that in talking about documentary and testimonial evidence. Are you discounting the Text Messages from mr. Strzok and ms. Page, for example . No, what we were trying to do was be clear that we were focused on the very specific investigative decisions that we looked at, and what was significant about the im now talking about the prejuly 5 announcement decisions was that strzok, page and others were not the sole Decision Makers there, they were team decisions, and in many cases prosecutors decisions as opposed to the individuals who wrote the emails. We made very clear that we were not saying as to every single decision. As you know from doing these kinds of cases, there are hundreds of decisions to be made, and, in fact, we did not find no bias with regard to the october events. Well, director comey was pretty clear that he expected Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States, correct . He described that with regard to, yes, the october events, the weiner laptop. And sometime in the spring of 2016, he already decided that there would be no recommendation to prosecute Hillary Clinton, correct . Yes. He started drafting his statement on may 2nd. And it wasnt until july 5th when he made his initial press conference where he said that the evidence did not rise to the point where any reasonable prosecutor, basically, would prosecute ms. Clinton, correct . Thats correct. Do you think its possible let me just ask you, is it a fair interference to draw that director comey expected mrs. Clinton to win the presidency and he was thinking about his future as fbi director . I think that was the concern we had even where its clear in that october time period, because we have testimony that indicated when he explained through his chief of staff why he was going to do what he did on october 28, he was concerned about his survivability. And when, for example, he used the word grossly negligent, which are the words of the statute in describing ms. Clintons conduct, later on it was changed to extremely careless. Right. Do you feel like he was riding toward a preordained result or that this was a genuine process to think through what the evidence was and try to apply the applicable law . I think that would be hard to say and probably would be speculation in terms of what he was thinking at the time. We try and lay out in great detail various places including that, how it changed, how it evolved and why. But im not sure i can sit here and say precisely what was his thinking on the time. Were you shocked to learn that director comey had his own private Gmail Account at a time he was investigating a possible prosecution for mrs. Clinton for using a private email server. It surprised us that he would have been sending emails, although they were classified, but nonetheless using a personal Gmail Account. Director wray, direct comey has talked about a higher loyalty to his own sense of justice and his belief that that was required in order to protect the reputation of the fbi rather than to follow established policies and guidelines and the law. I believe that that hubris that director comey was demonstrating and suggesting that the rules did not apply to him that applied to everybody else has brought this firestorm down on the fbi. Do you think its appropriate for any director of the fbi to attribute their actions to a higher loyalty to some other cause other than the rule of law and the policies and guidelines of the department of justice . Well, senator, i dont want to speak to what director comey mayor may not have been thinking, but what i can tell you is that my own view was that the rules, the policies, the guidelines, the longestablished norms as the Inspector Generals report refers to them, those things are there for a reason and its important that we track those. And thats why, when im going around from field office to field office doing town halls with over 30 offices, the point i keep making everywhere is that its not enough to say that youre going to do the right thing for the right reason. That pretty quickly can become the ends justify the means. What we need to be doing is doing the right thing in the right way so as not to let the ends justify the means but let our means justify our ends. Well, general horowitz, i believe your report, as comprehensive as it was, and i commend you on the great care that youve undertaken, i dont necessarily agree with every word of it, especially the no finding and no bias. But i think your findings call into question the credibility of the whole clinton email investigation and cast a cloud ov over the same people leading the clinton investigation were leading the russia investigation during the same time special counsel mueller terminated their services. Do you share their concerns . I do share their concerns and it did cast a cloud over the entire clinton email investigation. And the russia investigation . Im not entirely clear about that, but we laid out a concern when the choice was made in october, whether to move in the case of mr. Strzok in particular, the Russia Organization versus the weiner laptop matter, the result was to make that a higher priority, the russia matter over the clinton matter, and we were not convinced that was not a biased decision. Senator durbin. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much for your testimony. The communication with which you go into detail describing between peter strzok and lisa page includes some damning statements. And you make that very clear in your conclusion about their possibly using their Governmental Authority to achieve a political result. Is that correct . Thats correct. I felt that was a very serious error. That should not be downplayed by anyone . That should not be downplayed by anybody. I cannot think of something more concerning than a Law Enforcement officer suggesting theyre going to try and use or may use their powers to affect an election. What did special counsel mueller do when he learned about the statements by mr. Strzok . We informed him on july 27 of the last year of our first findings of these texts. We subsequently gained more. But my understanding is within a week or two of that, he had been removed from the investigation. Which was the right thing to do. And i want to make it clear based on previous questioning here, no one is making excuses for these things. Mr. Strzok said something that was inappropriate and unacceptable for a person in his position. Mr. Mueller responded professionally and terminated him as soon as he learned that. I hope thats on the record and clear. You spent a lot of time, and i want to echo the comments made earlier in this work reviewing all these documents, texts, interviewing all these witnesses. I know you and ive heard your testimony and theres no doubt you know this Inspector Generals report in detail. Lots of people reacted to it. Politicians, individuals, news commentators and others. Im going to ask you for the record specifically your thoughts on one reaction. Last friday President Trump said, and i quote, i think that the report yesterday, maybe more importantly than anything, it toel totally exonerates me. There was no collusion, there was no obstruction, and if you read the report youll see that, the president said. He went on to say, i did nothing wrong. There was no collusion, there was no obstruction. The ig report went a long way to show that, end of quote. General horowitz, does your report totally exonerate President Trump . Im going to stick, senator, to what our report does speak to, which is the handling of the clinton email investigation, and to the extent it touches on the russia investigation, it does it as we lay out here. Wh when the weiner laptop comes out in october, and i cant speak beyond that, as to how this report might impact the russia investigation or what individuals think how it may impact the rest of the russia investigation. I ask you to clarify that. You cant speak to whether your report exonerates because it does or it doesnt . What are you saying . We did not investigate as we laid out here, when we saw those Text Messages, many of which are in that julyaugust time period, we made it quite clear here that this review does not touch on the russia investigation with the exception of what occurred in october with the reasonweiner laptop. Does it say anything on the issue of obstruction and collusion in that russia investigation . We dont go into any issues related to the russia investigation beyond what i mentioned. Last friday when he was talking about the ig report, President Donald Trump said the special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller, quote, has been totally discredited. Mr. Horowitz, does your report show any reason to devalue or discredit any opinions he has made . Im not going to make a judgment on special counsel muellers investigation. Im going to stick to what i here i want to stick to the four corners of your investigation. Did you address the credibility of the special Counsel Robert Mueller . We laid out what occurred and we laid out what individuals did in october where it touches the russia investigation. Last thursday Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said in an interview with the Washington Examiner he wanted the Mueller Investigation to conclude. He said, quote, if the ig is through, why cant the Mueller Investigation finally wrap up . Was there any connection in substance or duration between what you were tasked in doing and what Robert Mueller is tasked in doing . Again, other than the issues we talked about where we identify Text Messages and brought them to his attention, we do not have any connections, interactions in that regard. Director wray, my colleague, senator leahy and others, have raised the question about the new York Field Office and leaks in that field office. And there are quotes in the report relative to mr. Comeys concern that new York Field Office would leak information, and thats one of the reasons why he made certain decisio