Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department will accept the findings of the inspector general and work to clean up the FBI, which has been marred by a bruising report of its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

"We're not going to be defensive. We're going to confront any problems and we're going to deal with them one by one in a proper, fair and appropriate way," Sessions said Friday during an address to law enforcement at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Sessions said the department he oversees is "going to reaffirm and recommit ourselves to the highest ideals of that great agency, the FBI."

"If we make a mistake, we're going to confront it," he said.

Sessions praised FBI Director Christopher Wray for his handling of the fallout from the report, saying he was "real proud" of Wray for his remarks Thursday.

The Justice Department inspector general on Thursday released a sweeping 500-page report detailing failures by the FBI's top officials in charge of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, concluding the FBI's actions ultimately "cast a cloud" over the bureau and senior leaders did lasting damage to the agency's reputation.

Wray said during a news conference Thursday that he takes the report "very seriously and we accept its findings and recommendations."

He vowed the FBI will "hold employees accountable for any potential misconduct" in response to the report.