Andrew McCabe has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, the FBI and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz Tuesday alleging the Trump administration violated procedures when it fired him in March, and that the Justice Department has denied access to documents which outline those procedures.
“We don’t create or adjudicate under secret law or procedure,” David Snyder, a lawyer representing McCabe, told The Associated Press.
McCabe’s attorneys argue that the DOJ is refusing to hand over their policies and procedures documents out of fears that it will lead to further litigation.
McCabe was fired in March by Attorney General Jeff Sessions after DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a criminal referral. His ouster followed a months-long internal investigation which concluded that the former acting FBI Director leaked a self-serving story to the press and then lied about it four times, including twice while under oath.
Horowitz said McCabe “had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor – including under oath – on multiple occasions.”
Specifically, McCabe was fired for lying about authorizing 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.
In short, 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.
According to McCabe’s new lawsuit, his firing followed “proceedings that violated federal law and departed from applicable administrative rules, standards, policies and procedures” and that “It is incongruous with Defendants’ public, and repeated, representations to the effect that Mr. McCabe was dismissed from the FBI following an ‘extensive and fair investigation’ which was carried out ‘according to Department of Justice procedure.”
McCabe’s attorneys say they want “immediate” access to the internal documents, including an Inspector General manual which outlines the guidelines governing FBI policy on how disciplinary matters are to be handled.
The lawyers say they “seek to vindicate Mr. McCabe’s rights and restore his good name,” and were weighing further legal action.
via RSS https://ift.tt/2HO2n2L Tyler Durden