Following yesterday’s criminal referral issued to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, his ex-boss James Comey and several other individuals, alleging malfeasance during the 2016 US election, the Washington Post reports that McCabe was referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office by the Department of Justice’s internal watchdog.
While CNN suggests that the criminal referral was recently issued, citing a “source familiar with the matter” – the Washington Post says it occurred “some time ago.”
The referral to the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office occurred some time ago, after the inspector general concluded McCabe had lied to investigators or his own boss, then-FBI Director James B. Comey, on four occasions, three of them under oath. –WaPo
It is unknown how the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office has responded to the referral – including whether prosecutors have launched a separate investigation, as a criminal referral does not obligate officials to take action.
The DOJ, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office and a spokeswoman for McCabe declined to comment Thursday.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report last week, accusing former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe of repeatedly misleading investigators.
McCabe was fired on March 16 after the OIG found that he “had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor – including under oath – on multiple occasions.”
Specifically, McCabe was fired when it was uncovered that he authorized an F.B.I. spokesman and attorney to tell Devlin Barrett of the Wall St. Journal, just days before the 2016 election, that the FBI had not put the brakes on a separate investigation into the Clinton Foundation – at a time in which McCabe was coming under fire for his wife taking a $467,500 campaign contribution from Clinton proxy pal, Terry McAuliffe.
The WSJ article in question reads:
New details show that senior law-enforcement officials repeatedly voiced skepticism of the strength of the evidence in a bureau investigation of the Clinton Foundation, sought to condense what was at times a sprawling cross-country effort, and, according to some people familiar with the matter, told agents to limit their pursuit of the case. The probe of the foundation began more than a year ago to determine whether financial crimes or influence peddling occurred related to the charity.
…
Some investigators grew frustrated, viewing FBI leadership as uninterested in probing the charity, these people said. Others involved disagreed sharply, defending FBI bosses and saying Mr. McCabe in particular was caught between an increasingly acrimonious fight for control between the Justice Department and FBI agents pursuing the Clinton Foundation case.
So McCabe was found to have leaked information to the WSJ in order to combat rumors that Clinton had indirectly bribed him to back off the Clinton Foundation investigation, and then lied about it four times to the DOJ and FBI, including twice under oath.
According to the just-released DOJ OIG report on Andrew McCabe, McCabe lied to the FBI director, lied to FBI agents under oath, and lied twice to DOJ OIG investigators under oath. https://t.co/1Vw2iI5noT pic.twitter.com/2P93PNkODZ
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 13, 2018
As we reported yesterday, a massive battle is brewing between former FBI Director James Comey, and his deputy Andy McCabe over exactly who is lying about Comey knowing that McCabe had been leaking self-serving information to the Wall Street Journal.
Comey stopped by ABC’s The View to peddle his new book, A Higher Royalty Loyalty, where he called his former Deputy Andrew McCabe a liar, and admitted that he “ordered the report” which found McCabe guilty of leaking to the press and then lying under oath about it, several times.
Comey was asked by host Megan McCain how he thought the public was supposed to have “confidence” in the FBI amid revelations that McCabe lied about the leak.
“It’s not okay. The McCabe case illustrates what an organization committed to the truth looks like,” Comey said. “I ordered that investigation.”
Comey then appeared to try and frame McCabe as a “good person” despite all the lying.
“Good people lie. I think I’m a good person, where I have lied,” Comey said. “I still believe Andrew McCabe is a good person but the inspector general found he lied,” noting that there are “severe consequences” within the DOJ for doing so.
In response, McCabe’s attorney, Michael R. Bromwich (flush with cash from the disgraced Deputy Director’s half-million dollar legal defense GoFundMe campaign), fired back – claiming that Comey was well aware of the leaks.
“In his comments this week about the McCabe matter, former FBI Director James Comey has relied on the Inspector Genera’s (OIG) conclusions in their report on Mr. McCabe. In fact, the report fails to adequately address the evidence (including sworn testimony) and documents that prove that Mr. McCabe advised Director Comey repeatedly that he was working with the Wall Street Journal on the stories in question…” reads the statement in part.
Things are getting mighty interesting for Andy “the bag man” McCabe, as James Comey – worth an estimated $11 million before becoming FBI Director, trots around the country promoting his lucrative new book – while his former Deputy is undoubtedly tapping into his legal defense fund to prepare for battle.
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