Updated at 6:48 p.m.
The Justice Department’s inspector general released a report Friday that said fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe “lacked candor” on four separate occasions, including three times while under oath.
The 39-page report was delivered to select congressional committees, roughly month after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe 26 hours before his planned retirement.
“We concluded that McCabe lacked candor on four separate occasions in connection with the disclosure to the [Wall Street Journal]. Three of those occasions involved his testimony under oath,” the report said.
The investigation began when the FBI’s Inspector Division sought to determine if the information published in an October 2016 article in the Wall Street Journal about the FBI’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s email probe was due to an “unauthorized leak,” and “if so, who was the source of the leak.”
When asked on four separate occasions who provided the information to the Wall Street Journal, McCabe said he did not authorize the disclosure to the reporter, which was not true, the inspector general investigators found.
Investigators said McCabe authorized FBI aides to tell the reporter various facts, which they said was to “rebut a narrative that had been developing […] that questioned McCabe’s impartiality in overseeing” the FBI’s investigation into Clintons’ emails and the Clinton foundation.
“The disclosure to the WSJ effectively confirmed the existence of the CF Investigation, which then-FBI Director [James] Comey had 2 previously refused to do,” the report revealed.
McCabe also misled Comey about what he authorized the FBI aides to tell the reporter.
The IG finally determined that as deputy director, McCabe was authorized to make the disclosures if they fell within the “public interest exception, since the Justice Department and FBI prohibit “such a disclosure of an ongoing investigation.”
“However, we concluded that McCabe’s decision to confirm the existence of the [Clinton Foundation] Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior Department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception. We therefore concluded that McCabe’s disclosure of the existence of an ongoing investigation in this manner violated the FBI’s and the Department’s media policy and constituted misconduct,” the IG said.
The findings led FBI disciplinary officials to recommend that the Justice Department fire McCabe.
In a point-by-point rebuttal on Friday, McCabe disputed the report, and said he had full authorization to share the information.
McCabe also said he did not intentionally mislead investigators.
A statement from his counsel, Michael Bromwich, indicated legal action could be imminent.
“We have for some time been actively considering filing civil lawsuits against the President and senior members of the Administration that would allege wrongful termination, defamation, Constitutional violations and more. The distinguished Boies Schiller law firm has recently joined us in this project. This is just the beginning,” Bromwich wrote in a statement.
McCabe was fired on March 16, days before he planned to formally retire on his 50th birthday and collection a full pension.
The report’s release coincides with that talk that President Trump might fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in an effort to limit the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
McCabe has also said his firing was a means to undermine Mueller.
The report’s release also coincides with the release of Comey’s memoir. Comey was fired by Trump last May, and leaked excerpts of his book show biting criticisms of the president.
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is expected to release a larger report in the coming weeks on the FBI’s actions during the 2016 presidential election.
