James Comey Claims Vindication By IG Report In WaPo Op-Ed: Trump “Smeared” The FBI

Other folks aren't too sure.

Here's an excerpt from Comey's op-ed at The Washington Post, so you can hear it straight outta the horse's mouth:

For two years, the president of the United States and his followers have loudly declared that the FBI acted unlawfully in conducting a counterintelligence investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

They repeatedly told the American people that the FBI had done all sorts of bad things, such as tapping Donald Trump’s wires during the campaign, opening an investigation without adequate cause, with the intent to damage Trump, and inserting secret informants into the Trump campaign.

President Trump said the FBI’s actions were “treason.” The current attorney general even slimed his own organization by supporting Trump’s claims, asserting there had been “spying” on the campaign. Crimes had been committed, the Trump crowd said, and a whole bunch of former FBI leaders, including me, were likely going to jail.

On Monday, we learned from a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, that the allegation of a criminal conspiracy was nonsense. There was no illegal wiretapping, there were no informants inserted into the campaign, there was no “spying” on the Trump campaign.

Although it took two years, the truth is finally out.

The Washington Examiner has more details on Comey's take-away from the Horowitz report:

Former FBI Director James Comey said Monday Attorney General William Barr “slimed” the Justice Department by claiming FBI agents may have spied on the Trump campaign.

                                                                                                                                                        

Mr. Comey made the claims in a Washington Post op-ed posted just hours after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the FBI was justified in investigating alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

                                                                                                                                                        

However, Mr. Horowitz also found an FBI application to surveil ex-Trump campaign aide Carter Page was riddled with errors, mistakes and omissions.

Mr. Comey said the inspector general’s conclusions dispute claims by President Trump and Mr. Barr that partisan animosity was a factor in opening the Russia probe.

                                                                                                                                                        

“Well, the wait is over and those who smeared the FBI are due for an accounting,” Mr. Comey wrote. “In particularly, Attorney General William P. Barr owes the institution he leads, and the American people, an acknowledgment of the truth.”

The National Review also said:

Former FBI director James Comey attacked President Trump and Attorney General William Barr on Monday after the publication of the Department of Justice inspector general’s report on the FBI’s investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign.

Comey was fired by President Trump in 2017, but Trump and his administration gave conflicting reasons for the firing. Comey has been accused by conservatives of mishandling the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s controversial use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

“The Russia investigation was complicated — not surprisingly, the inspector general found mistakes, 17 of them, things the FBI should have done differently, or better,” Comey wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post. “That’s always unfortunate, but human beings make mistakes.”

IG Michael Horowitz concluded that the FBI made “significant errors” in its application for a FISA warrant to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page, and other errors in its investigation into campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former national-security adviser Michael Flynn.