Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani told Department of Justice investigators that he made up claims about Hillary Clinton’s emails ahead of the 2016 election, according to The Daily Beast. At the time, Giuliani claimed in a radio interview that he’d heard “rumors” about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails from “active” FBI agents. Two days later, then-FBI Director James Comey announced that the agency would reopen its inquiry into whether Hillary Clinton had mishandled classified information. The months leading to the 2016 election were wild, but Comey’s announcement was like a gut-punch to Democrats. It was unheard of and considered election interference by many just ahead of the election.
“Giuliani gloated about it on a radio show that same day, saying he was hearing “rumors” from “active” FBI agents that they supported Comey’s decision to backtrack and reopen the email probe,” the outlet reports.
Giuliani sat down for a voluntary interview with the Justice Department’s inspector general and admitted that he claims were all bullshit.
“But in subsequent interviews with the DOJ Office of the Inspector General, which had launched a probe into possible FBI leaks, Giuliani admitted it was just hot air,” the report continues.
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“His chats had amounted to “gossip” about Comey’s decision-making, and the “active” agents he referred to were just retired FBI agents actively working in security and consulting, he told the OIG,” the outlet reports.
“Giuliani later claimed that the “surprise” he had been referring to was a speech Trump would deliver before the election that would derail Clinton and had been unrelated to Comey’s announcement,” the report continues.
“Accordingly, the purported investigative leads provided by the FBI based on alleged FBI employee contacts with Giuliani were inaccurate,” the report says.
The inspector general’s office released a report on Thursday, revealing that no evidence was found that active FBI agents contacted Giuliani before the 2016 election.
We had two candidates in 2016 to choose from. One was highly qualified for the job; the other was a former reality TV show star, a serial bankruptcy filer, and an adulterer. The woman lost the race to a mentally unfit man for the job, then hundreds of thousands of Americans died on his watch. I’d like to know what Trump knew of Giuliani’s disinformation plan. And how is that not considered election interference? Maybe the twice-impeached one-term president should go under oath for 11 hours just like Clinton did.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
