mr. horwitz? you can't conclude the obvious bias impacted sum at the upper echelon of the fbi and their work and their so-called investigation? because that would taint the

mr. horwitz?ou don't see that is to let go by what do you call everything that you just reported? it is a political? the report also found that fbi employees received free tickets to sporting events from who? the destroy trump media, so-called journalists. they went on golf outings with media reps. they were treated to drinks and food by reporters. because of everything we just showed you, that report concluded that a comey, page, strzok, and others severely damage the reputation of the fbi. here is what current fbi director christopher wray said about all of these findings. take a look. >> i take this report very seriously, and we accept its findings and recommendations. it's also important, and thougo note what they did not find. this report did not find any evidence of political bias or improper considerations actually impacting the investigation under review. the report does identify errors of judgment, violations of, or even disregard for policy and decisions that come at the very least, with

mr. horwitz that you didn't already know?> i think what's key here is that on one side, seizing upon this thing is saying the prosecutors do not act with bias on their conclusions but what is really apparent in the hearing this morning is that the investigators, several who were completely biased in favor of mrs. clinton gave the evidence to the prosecutors to act on and they were very vitriolic against president trump, and clearly cast a cloud over the evidence that they provided to the prosecutors. >> melissa: what does it go from here? some say the natural progression is to now look at these same folks and how they behave with respect to president trump in terms of the russian investigation and see if in that instance, they did act on their bias. because it's one of the ongoing things that you saw him comment on, with the russian investigation is going to be looked at in depth, clearly with the statements of the text and emails that they had an insurance policy, they were going to stop it which was becoming president of th

mr. horwitz for your testimony. you did determined there was political bias against president trump. >> correct. >> the same agents assigned to the clinton investigation also assigned to the russian probe? be my correct do you think the russian probe could potentially could have been intended by the same political bias? be a congressman we focused on the investigation we have the ongoing work we are doing so i will defer. >> but it is reasonable if you found a political bias against the president now assigned to the russian probe that certainly that needs to be looked at the market is a reasonable question that we're looking at on our own. >> i assume you watch the news? >> i tried not to. >> do you believe there is anti- trump bias. >> i will not reply on that. >> you don't have an opinion. >> i do as a private citizen. >> would it surprise you to know 90% of median mom -- mainstream media coverage is anti- trump? >> i don't have an opinion on that. >> would be safe to assume fbi agents watch the mainstream new. >>

mr. horwitz, does peter strzok like the president? >> reporter: on capitol hill they hammered michael horwitz about those messages between strzok and former fbi lawyer lisa page. that february/march of 2018, peter strzok said trump's abysmal, he's an idiot, he's a blipping idiot. it sounds like he hates mr. trump. >> his text messages would certainly leave that as the implication. >> that's textbook bias. it's quite definitely a bias allowing something other than the facts to determine your decision. >> rep t general did not try to dissuade republican lawmakers over their concerns. >> i think, frankly, anybody should be concerned about any law enforcement officer expressing these kinds of views. i don't care whether it's a presidential race or a local election. it just shouldn't happen. >> reporter: strzok and page worked on the special counsel team but were removed when the texts were discovered. page has since left the fbi. strzok's lawyer defended his client. >> you can ask anyone who worked with peter, they say he's among the best

mr. horwitz and your colleagues and i hope it doesn't get distorted through the process. >> the gentleman from wisconsin is recognize. >> we have spent a lot of time onon this but obviously they have said things you would consider they had a strong bias to mrs. clinton, correct? >> we were concerned about their bias. >> by the way if something happens if they make a decision that favors ms. clinton and they talked about bias, towards ms. clinton you will not say that necessarily affected their decision? >> i don't know if that is right but we look for the evidence to see if we can find evidence ofhe bias. >> but if they make a decision that happens to favor mrs. clinton or mr. trump that by itself did not say that is an indication of bias? >> i would say with regards to the october decision to not prioritize the russian investigation we reach the determination were concerned it could have been. >> there were five other people you mention that apparently said things that would indicate they did not like mr. trump. >> three others plus the two. >> a total of five did you find anybody else e

mr. horwitz has the job of speaking truth to power. all ig's has that same responsibility, for mr. horwitz and it is exercised by him in time of put -- intense political and public focus on his work. his resume demonstrates that he is more than able to take on this task. he was appointed the department of justice ig in 2012 by president obama after previously working as a defense attorney in the private sector. previously, as a prosecutor in the always quite southern district of new york and is a top official in the criminal division of the department of justice. in 2003, president george w. bush named him to the u.s. sentencing commission where he served for five years. he has been referred to as unflappable, nonpartisan, and thorough. qualities valued in any inspector general. he is here today to share his views on the current role of the ig's and the area of congressional oversight and he will be doing this before we hear from our two panels. we are very grateful that michael could join with us today and it is a special treat for us to be able to have him share his thoughts with

welcome inspector general horwitz. >> mr. chairman, before we hear from the inspector general i feel compelled to say something about a topic that is a more immeate priority. we've seen the pictures of immigrant children ripped apart at the border. these are not orders or bargaining chips, they are not there to help president trump built his wall. every day they are separated is a dave we do irreparable harm to the health and well-being. the united states should be better than this. we should not put children in cages. the minute this hearing adjourned sooner if we can we need to work together. >> the gentleman from new york has been given more time that would've been afforded. henry pulled something like that. with that, we will welcome you mr. horwitz for what i think is a hearing on your inspector general report and decisions made and not made in 2016. >> we will be in recess until the capital please restore order. >> no. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] >> the committee will come to order. inspe

mr. horwitz. i'm not buying that the clinton email and prestige was on the up and up. >> sean: i am not buying it either. you still think political bias didn't play a role in the fbi's decisions? at the center of all this is fbi trump-hating agent peter strzok. he is being subpoenaed by the house judiciary committee in order to better determine why the fbi and the doj withheld many of his anti-trump text. we still haven't gotten them all. remember, he was the lead fbi agent in the hillary clinton investigation. he is the one who vowed to stop a trump presidency in a text with his girlfriend, lisa page. according to the ig report, page was a high-ranking fbi attorney who was used by andrew mccabe. yeah, that andrew mccabe. of course they bypass the fbi's chain of command and he got to manager the clinton investigation. next we knew peter strzok, andrew weissmann, those names sound familiar? those anti-trump democratic donors had the same people to finish the exoneration of hillary and put the fix i

mr. horwitz, president trump has claimed fbi officials are biased against him and in favor of former second hillary clinton. let me make sure i have understood this. it's in your investigation, did you find that the fbi took any investigative step based on political bias against the current president? >> no. the one area where we were concerned about bias was in the october time period and the weighing of agent strzok between focusing on the russia investigation, the weiner laptop, and our concern about his decision, given the text messages. >> did you conclude that any -- that we should have concern about the initiation or ongoing conduct of the special counsel investigation based on those texts? >> we didn't look at the special counsel investigation in this revere. -- this review. >> the department policies that are in place for a reason. and it was wrong to deviate from them and it would be wrong to deviate now. >> is one of the most important takeaways. >> jesse: this is a fox news alert. hello, everybody. i am jesse watters. welcome to the "the five." we are awaiting a white house pres

mr. horwitz, the inspector general who has penned this long report that is going to come out this afternoonow the doj and fbi handled the clinton email probe, whether it was politically motivated, what was done right, what was done incorrectly. he is someone that you worked with back in the day. you worked with him at the doj. he's been roundly praised by republicans like oversight chairman trey gowdy, like cummins on the left. what can you tell us about him? >> he is a excellent lawyer, good background as a prosecutor. he's very, very meticulous. i remember one anecdote about him that he used to come to these meetings when he was chief-of-staff with only a single note card for notes, so obviously very good memory, very thorough. and he's really a one of the best igs. really i've known a lot and he's very just focused on doing a very rigorous comprehensive job and he's not going to be swayed by anybody else's timetable or anybody else's agenda. >> and in the fast and furious case during the obama administration, the report on the fallout from that, he even gained a lot of credit from member

mr. horwitz. that's coy little deeper into the issue we brought up with senator coons and the potential of bias in the investigation. your conclusion was that the agents involved in the conduct "brought discredit to them selves, so doubt into the fbi's handling of the investigation and impacted the reputation of the fbi." there were approximately 15 full-time agents and analysts on the investigation, is that correct? >> as i sit here, i'm not sure of the exact number. it could well have been that number. it's probably around that number. >> 50 assistant director peter strzok was was assigned to the investigation and placed in charge of supervising the day-to-day operations. >> in essence he was leading the investigation. >> the agent leading the investigation, is it true that during the period of the investigation in late 2015 and 2016 when mr. strzok was in charge, he used an fbi device to call president trump a "fing idiot, a loathsome human." did he also say donald trump "cannot be president."

mr. horwitz, it comes and is being exercised by him at a time of intense political and public focus on his work. that heme demonstrates is more than able to take on this task. he was appointed the department 2012 byce ig in president obama. after previously working as a defense attorney in the private sector. previously as a prosecutor in the always quiet southern district of new york, and as a top official in the criminal division of the department of justice. 2003, president george w. bush named him to the u.s. sentencing commission where he served for five years. he's been referred to as unflappable, nonpartisan, and thorough. qualities valued in any inspector general. he is here today to share his today to share his views on the current role of the i.g.'s in the area of ongressional oversight and he'll be doing this before we panels.om our two we're grateful that he could join us today and it's a special his to have him sre thoughts with you and he's also take some e'll questions after his remarks, but minor caveat. on't ask him questions about pending investigations. because he obviou

mr. horwitz. the i.t. worker who managed the clinton server lied to the fbi repeatedly. he denied to leading to clinton emails, he denied that the clinton staff ever asked him to delete emails, he denied knowing emails were under a reservation order. he had a call with clinton's lawyers. -- to delete used the clinton emails, invoked the fifth amendment to avoid questions about that call, even sent an emails sang he was part of the "hillary cover up operation." he later claims that was only a joke. there was no search warrant or to know for the laptops what he did. he did not get the meal or muellert, not -- the treatment, no pressure to flip or testify against his lawyers. quite the opposite, he got immunity. this is an example of a double standard in these two investigations and why more and more people believe the investigation lakhs fairness. comey pressure the team to close the case before the party convention. and he had already made up his mind to close it before the work has done. is it improper to set a deadline to close a case based upon the calendar? mr. horowi