WaPo: Justice IG focused on McCabe delay in examining Clinton emails on Weiner laptop

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is conducting an internal investigation that has for months focused on outgoing FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The DOJ inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is reportedly looking at why McCabe neglected for at least three weeks to look at new emails related to the investigation that were found on former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y)’s laptop during the later months of the 2016 election.

{mosads}Investigators want to know if McCabe or others at the FBI wanted to avoid coming up with results in that probe until after the 2016 election concluded, the Post reports.

Clinton supporters have long argued that the FBI’s late decision to reopen the former secretary of State’s email investigation swung the election to now-President Trump, while the president’s supporters have argued that FBI officials let Clinton off without charges due to political bias.

In September of 2016, investigators searching a laptop belonging to Weiner discovered thousands of emails related to Clinton’s private email server used during her time at the State Department. The emails were a result of the device being used for work by Huma Abedin, Weiner’s wife and a close aide to Clinton.

McCabe was notified in late September or early October, according to the report. For three weeks, however, little changed in the investigation, which some law enforcement officials told the Post was a sign of the issue nearly dying at McCabe’s desk.

The probe was eventually reopened weeks before Election Day.

The FBI declined to comment to the Post.

The former No. 2 at the FBI announced Monday that he was stepping down as a result of pressure from Trump and congressional Republicans over the handling of both the Clinton email investigation and the Trump-Russia probe.

On Monday, the White House denied that Trump had anything to do with McCabe’s resignation.

“I can say that the president wasn’t a part of this decisionmaking process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Trump has attacked McCabe on Twitter over his wife’s failed political bid in Virginia and donations she received from other Democrats.