Who are they talking about? The reference, from page 430 of the OIG Report, does not name individuals.
“although FBI policy strictly limits the employees who are authorized to speak to the media, we found that this policy appeared to be widely ignored during the period we reviewed (April/May and October 2016). We identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were nevertheless in frequent contact with reporters. The large number of FBI employees who were in contact with journalists during this time period impacted our ability to identify the sources of leaks. For example, during the periods we reviewed, we identified dozens of FBI employees that had contact with members of the media.”
In a separate thread, Freeper be-baw pointed out that this likely does not refer to Andrew McCabe, who was Deputy Director (DD), but might be Peter Strzok, who was a Deputy Assistant Director (DAD).
It might also be any other DAD who happened to be caught up in the review, but whose actions were found to be insignificant/non-criminal, unlikely to result in conviction, or who may have made a cooperation deal with prosecutors.
The report doesn’t say ‘top’ FBI official. DAD is not necessarily as high up as could be imagined. I believe a DAD would be below the Assistant Directors, so there are a lot of them.
Why are they protecting the identities of the law breakers? They are protecting their reputations......