what to look for in the justice departments report on the clinton investigation the report by the justice departments inspector general is highly anticipated not least by president trump credittom brennerthe new york timesjune 14 2018washington a muchanticipated report about the fbis handling of its investigation into hillary clinton was scheduled to be released on thursday and few were looking forward to it more than president trump here are the big outstanding questions and what to look fordid the fbi really put the fix in to save mrs clintonthis has become the most important question of the report and it is one that the inspector general michael e horowitz did not even set out to answer he began his investigation last year to scrutinize the actions of the fbi director at the time james b comey and his deputy andrew g mccabebut mr trump has pushed a theory that a secret cabal of mrs clintons supporters inside the fbi conspired to clear her of wrongdoing over her handling of classified information this same group of agents mr trump argues then cooked up a phony investigation into his campaigns ties to russia as a way to undermine his presidencyno public evidence has surfaced to prove this theory and the inspector general is unlikely to claim a wideranging political conspiracy at the heart of the fbi there is evidence that at least some agents on the clinton investigation disliked mr trump but look for mr trump to seize on aspects of the report that support him and probably discard those that do notimagecreditgabriella demczuk for the new york timeswhat is the comey legacymr comey was the most highprofile fbi director since j edgar hoover until mr trump fired him in may 2017 the inspector generals report is expected to be an unflattering book end to his career he is likely to face sharp criticism for that news conference in july 2016 and his announcement in late october of that yearyes this is about mueller but also not reallyneither the special counsel robert s mueller iii nor his investigation is the focus of the report but it looms over everything that will happen thursday around the release of the reportwhen the russia investigation began mr comey made a decision that ultimately proved fateful rather than assign the case to agents in the field he gave it to the same team at headquarters that had investigated mrs clinton so any criticism of decisions in the clinton case no matter how unrelated to the russia investigation will ultimately be used by mr trump to challenge the integrity of the team that began investigating his campaignthe tarmac meeting was not a good ideain the final days of the clinton investigation the attorney general at the time loretta e lynch held an impromptu private meeting with former president bill clinton when the two found themselves unexpectedly on the same tarmac at phoenix sky harbor international airport the meeting led to calls for ms lynch to recuse herself