Senate FBI hearing takes twists and turns, including a 'wangdoodle' reference

It was not, perhaps, the most somber moment in the history of the U.S. Senate. In the midst of reciting a list of complaints about FBI agents allegedly swayed by their own anti-Trump animus, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., stopped speaking and looked up. He had been reading from some of the messages those agents privately exchanged, and which were later uncovered by investigators.“Rhymes with ‘wangdoodle,’” a seemingly perturbed Kennedy said. That wasn’t the word or rhyme. But the point was made.

That was just one standout moment at Monday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. FBI Director Christopher Wray and Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice inspector general, were present on Capitol Hill for the occasion.

Last week, Horowitz released a lengthy report that lambasted then FBI Director James Comey for his handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. Horowitz’s report also found that high-ranking officials within the FBI bore animus toward Trump, though the report pointedly does not ascribe political motive to any actions the agency undertook in regard to Clinton or President Trump, who fired Comey last year.

Both sides of the political divide have found reason to celebrate the report. Trump falsely deemed himself “totally exonerated” last Friday, in a seeming conflation of Horowitz’s report and the work of special counsel Robert Mueller. The two investigations are unrelated. Clinton supporters, meanwhile, found evidence for their belief that Comey’s Oct. 28, 2016, letter, in which he declared a reopening of the investigation into Clinton’s emails, robbed the Democratic candidate of momentum in the election’s final lap.