(Bloomberg) -- James Comey, the former FBI director, agreed on Sunday with the conclusions of an independent investigator that found flaws in the agency’s decision to probe individuals in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“He’s right, I was wrong.” Comey, who was fired by Trump in May 2017, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I was overconfident, as director, in the procedures that the FBI and Justice have built over 20 years.”

It was the first television interview by Comey since Monday’s release of the Justice Department Inspector General’s report into how the Federal Bureau of Investigation came in 2016 to investigate people associated with Trump’s campaign.

The report provided a rare, extensive view into the FBI’s investigative work, from deciding to open the investigation in the first place to using confidential informants and obtaining secret warrants to conduct surveillance.

Michael Horowitz’s two-year study and the 434-page report that resulted showed no systemic bias against Trump in opening the 2016 investigation, but outlined “at least 17 significant errors or omissions” concerning FBI efforts.

“There was real sloppiness,” Comey said. “Seventeen things, these should have been in the applications, or at least discussed and characterized differently. It was not acceptable.”

Still, Comey said the conspiracy that Trump and his allies have maintained about the investigation -- that it was a “treasonous” attempt by the FBI to overthrow the president -- was “nonsense.”

“He also found things that we were never accused of, which is real sloppiness, and that’s concerning, and as I’ve said all along, has to be focused on,” Comey said.

Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday took the unusual step of dismissing key conclusions of the IG’s report on whether the FBI was justified in probing whether then-candidate Trump conspired with Russia in 2016.

In a pair of interviews, Barr described the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s work in the 2016 election probe as “flimsy,” “baseless,” and a “complete sham” marred by “inexplicable behavior” and “gross abuse.”

“He doesn’t have a factual basis to be speculating that agents were acting in bad faith,” Comey said of Barr’s statements.

Republican Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the Inspector General’s report “outlined what is really criminal activity” and was an “indictment” of Comey’s leadership.

Federal prosecutor John Durham has been conducting, at Burr’s behest, a separate examination into the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the involvement of Trump’s campaign. Ratcliffe said he would expect Durham to look at the actions of the FBI “from a criminal standpoint.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny

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