DOJ Report: McCabe Leaked Information to Media, Lied to Comey

DOJ Report: McCabe Leaked Information to Media, Lied to Comey

The DOJ Inspector General dropped its report (pdf.)(full embed at bottom of post) on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and it’s a doozy. It turns out that McCabe authorized a leak to the Wall Street Journal in an attempt to boost himself, but lied to investigators and former FBI Director James Comey.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe in March due to recommendations from a department senior official and early reports on McCabe’s behavior.

From Fox News:

The report on McCabe found that McCabe authorized a leak to a Wall Street Journal reporter about the contents of a telephone call in August 2016.

“Among the purposes of the disclosure was to rebut a narrative that had been developing following a story in the WSJ on October 23, 2016, that questioned McCabe’s impartiality in overseeing FBI investigations involving [Clinton], and claimed that McCabe had ordered the termination of the [FBI’s Clinton Foundation investigation] due
to Department of Justice pressure,” the report says.

That leak confirmed the existence of the probe, which then-FBI Director James Comey had until then refused to do so. The report says that McCabe “lacked candor” in a conversation with Comey when he said that he had not authorized the disclosure and didn’t know who did.

The IG also found that he also lacked candor when questioned by FBI agents on multiple occasions since that conversation, where he told agents that he did authorize the disclosure and did not know who did.

Portions of this report came out last March, including the leaks to the Wall Street Journal. The IG found that McCabe gave the okay to tell WSJ in October 2016 about how the FBI and DOJ came into disagreement “over how to proceed in an investigation into the financial dealings of the Clinton family’s foundation.” The story showed how McCabe pushed the FBI to continue the investigation.

McCabe spoke to Comey on October 31 about the WSJ article. The IG found that the two men had different accounts of this interaction. McCabe said that he told Comey he provided the authorization for those to disclose the phone call. Comey said otherwise:

I have a strong impression he conveyed to me “it wasn’t me boss.” And I don’t think that was by saying those words, I think it was most likely by saying “I don’t know how this shit gets in the media or why would people talk about this kind of thing,” words that I would fairly take as “I, Andy, didn’t do it.” And I actually didn’t suspect Andy, after conversations with [my chief of staff], my worry was, was his aide [Special Counsel] doing it.

There were a couple of problems with McCabe’s statements under oath during the course of 2017:

We also found that on May 9, 2017, when questioned under oath by FBI agents from INSD, McCabe lacked candor when he told the agents that he had not authorized the disclosure to the WSJ and did not know who did. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.6 (Lack of Candor – Under Oath).

We further found that on July 28, 2017, when questioned under oath by the OIG in a recorded interview, McCabe lacked candor when he stated: (a) that he was not aware of Special Counsel having been authorized to speak to reporters around October 30 and (b) that, because he was not in Washington, D.C., on October 27 and 28, 2016, he was unable to say where Special Counsel was or what she was doing at that time. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.6 (Lack of Candor – Under Oath).

We additionally found that on November 29, 2017, when questioned under oath by the OIG in a recorded interview during which he contradicted his prior statements by acknowledging that he had authorized the disclosure to the WSJ, McCabe lacked candor when he: (a) stated that he told Comey on October 31, 2016, that he had authorized the disclosure to the WSJ; (b) denied telling INSD agents on May 9 that he had not authorized the disclosure to the WSJ about the PADAG call; and (c) asserted that INSD’s questioning of him on May 9 about the October 30 WSJ article occurred at the end of an unrelated meeting when one of the INSD agents pulled him aside and asked him one or two questions about the article. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.6 (Lack of Candor – Under Oath).

THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED AND EXPANDED.

———————–

DOJ Inspector General Report on Andrew McCabe by Legal Insurrection on Scribd

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.