IG department ‘more respected’ than Mueller: Alan Dershowitz

The Justice Department’s watchdog organization is set to release a report Thursday afternoon examining how FBI officials handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, and according to Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, it will likely prove that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is unnecessary.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report -- anticipated to be released to Congress at 2 p.m. ET and expected to be more than 500 pages long -- has been in the making for 17 months. Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Trump in May 2017, is expected to be scrutinized in the report for his handling of the Clinton email scandal.

“It will have a lot of criticism. It also to me proves why we didn’t need a special counsel,” Dershowitz said during a FOX Business interview with Maria Bartiromo. “The Justice Department has its own internal mechanisms for investigating. The IG is much more respected and believed today than Mueller is.”

Mueller is currently conducting a probe into whether the Trump campaign team colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. The president has repeatedly decried the investigation as a “witch hunt.”

Although the report is not expected to address the Trump-Russia investigation, it will probably include criticism on both sides of the political aisle regarding the lead-up to the November election, Dershowitz said.

“I think the IG is neutral, nonpartisan, highly respected,” he said.