Prepare for Donald Trump to be caught between conflicting grudges. On the one hand, there’s Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who came in for a hate-tweet on Wednesday where Trump labeled him “an Obama guy,” and complained that allowing him to investigate the actions of former FBI Director James Comey “Will take forever.” On the other hand is former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who Trump hounded into early early retirement in January. Connecting the two is an upcoming report in which the inspector general will apparently find McCabe at fault for at least two issues.
The Justice Department inspector general is preparing a damaging report on former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, alleging he was responsible for approving an improper media disclosure, two people familiar with the matter said. One of the people said McCabe will also be accused of misleading investigators about his actions.
In late October 2016, less than two weeks before the election, McCabe apparently allowed agents to talk with a reporter at the Wall Street Journal on disagreements inside the FBI and DOJ. The contents of that article show that McCabe both supported the reopening of the investigation into Clinton’s emails and supported continuing the investigation of the Clinton Foundation over objections from the Justice Department.
However, though it’s not unusual for FBI officials to talk to reporters when they have partial information on a case to help prevent publishing of incorrect information, the Inspector General will apparently find that McCabe went too far in allowing agents to discuss details of the investigation. And one of the agents who spoke to the reporter was Lisa Page, recently made famous for her text exchanges with another agent.
The report also indicates that McCabe initially attempted to mislead the inspector general, though information released so far doesn’t say how.
So expect considerable chest-beating from the Trump White House as they proclaim both McCabe and Page to be “leakers” involved in a cover-up. Don’t expect complaints about the inspector general. And absolutely don’t expect anyone to mention that the story McCabe “leaked” was one that helped Donald Trump.
The WSJ story focused on the steps that caused Comey to reopen the investigation into Clinton’s emails, then went on to discuss how the Department of Justice had attempted to stop the long-running look into the Clinton Foundation. In both cases, McCabe’s actions were in support of continuing the investigations. In fact, it was McCabe who took the case for reopening the email investigation to Comey, despite warnings from the DOJ.
Mr. McCabe then instructed the email investigators to talk to the Weiner investigators and see whether the laptop’s contents could be relevant to the Clinton email probe, these people said. After the investigators spoke, the agents agreed it was potentially relevant.
Mr. Comey was given an update, decided to go forward with the case and notified Congress on Friday, with explosive results. Senior Justice Department officials had warned the FBI that telling Congress would violate policies against overt actions that could affect an election, and some within the FBI have been unhappy at Mr. Comey’s repeated public statements on the probe, going back to his press conference on the subject in July.
And McCabe insisted on continuing with the investigation into the Clinton Foundation over multiple objections from the Justice Department.
The Justice Department official was “very pissed off,” according to one person close to Mr. McCabe, and pressed him to explain why the FBI was still chasing a matter the department considered dormant.
Overall, the article shows McCabe as someone who was fighting to keep the investigations going, despite complaints from inside and outside the department, and despite the contributions of Democratic officials to his wife’s political campaign. Not only did McCabe’s actions at the agency seem to be in support of investigating Clinton, releasing the information about pressure from the DOJ to the Journal reporter only served to make it appear as if the Obama administration was attempting to protect Clinton from FBI attention.
But don’t expect that to be the focus of upcoming statements.
Horowitz’s report is almost certain to be used by President Trump, who has railed against leaks and made McCabe a particular target of his ire in recent months. McCabe, 49, briefly served as acting FBI director after President Trump fired James B. Comey from the job, and much like the man he succeeded, McCabe soon became a lightning rod in the political battles over the FBI, Clinton and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
And, of course, expect this report to be another sign that everything concerning Trump is … a witch hunt.
Horowitz is expected to produce his report on Comey’s actions some time before the end of April. It’s unclear if this report will affect McCabe’s retirement benefits, which don’t accrue for another two weeks.