Federal records show Inspector General Horowitz volunteered on the political campaigns of several Democrats while in college and later donated to the campaign of Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, a former colleague who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination – and who has slammed Trump's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Horowitz, moreover, is married to a former political activist who helped run campaigns for liberal Democrats before producing programming for CNN out of its Washington bureau. Records show his wife, Alexandra Kauffman Horowitz, also contributed to Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign.

At virtually every turn, the inspector general gave top brass the benefit of the doubt.

“He has bent over backwards to provide cover for a former colleague,” Biasello said, referring to Comey.

In the early 1990s, Horowitz worked under Comey at the department’s Southern District of New York office. Comey was deputy chief of the criminal division, and Horowitz was an assistant U.S. attorney.