No Evidence of FBI leaks to Giuliani, media in Clinton probe, Justice inspector general

The Justice Department's inspector general says he did not find evidence that FBI agents shared inside information about the Hillary Clinton email investigation with Rudy Giuliani, a personal lawyer for former President Trump. 

The issue of whether anyone had leaked information to Giuliani arose after he said in an Oct. 26, 2016, TV appearance that then-presidential candidate Trump had "some pretty big surprises" to share in the coming days. Two days later, then-FBI Director James Comey announced the agency would  reopen the investigation into Clinton using a private email server while secretary of state.

The inspector general looked into whether anyone had improperly tipped off Giuliani, and more broadly examined contacts between FBI officials and reporters during the course of the investigation, according to the Associated Press.

Giuliani told the IG's office that he had not received any information about the Clinton investigation and that he was shocked by Comey reopening the probe, essentially days before Election Day between the Democratic nominee and Trump.

As part of the investigation, the inspector general's office asked the FBI to determine which agents, if any, may have been in touch with Giuliani. The FBI identified four employees, but each employee told the watchdog office during interviews they had not had any contact with Giuliani, according to the report released Thursday.

The FBI said that the four employees had used their FBI devices to call telephone numbers associated with Giuliani, but the inspector general's office said that information was either outdated or meaningless.

The inspector general said it had concluded that the phone numbers used by the FBI were for the general line of the New York office of the law firm where Giuliani had worked and that two other telephone lines were for businesses “at which Giuliani had not been affiliated since at least 2007," the wire service also reports.