Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired last month for violating the agency’s ethics code by exhibiting a lack of candor under oath, a lack of candor when not under oath, and incorrectly providing sensitive information to the media about the agency’s Clinton Foundation probe, according to a new report.
McCabe’s action’s were first discovered by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, and were then corroborated by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
According to the investigation, McCabe told FBI lawyer Lisa Page and FBI public affairs chief Michael Kortan to contact a Wall Street Journal reporter to correct a report published in October 2016 about large donations McCabe’s wife received from Democrats during her bid for Virginia State Senate, Fox News reports.
Page’s account to investigators was “critical” because it countered the statements made by McCabe, a source told Fox News.
Additionally, the source shared that McCabe’s firing was a result of his lack of candor concerning the Wall Street Journal reporter.
McCabe’s attorney, Michael Bromwich, pushed back on what he described as a “false narrative.”
“Mr. McCabe’s interaction with the Wall Street Journal — which by FBI rule and practice he was fully authorized to do — was not done in secret: it took place over the course of several days and others knew of it, including Director Comey. Now, after a failure to justify the process by which Mr. McCabe was terminated with 26 hours to his retirement after more than 21 years of service, it appears that members of the House of Representatives are attempting to selectively and unfairly leak pieces of information from a report that is not public,” Bromwich told Fox News. “We understand that these members are attempting to create a false narrative that pits former Director Comey against Mr. McCabe. We deeply regret being compelled to respond to this selective leaking with any comment at all. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: Mr. McCabe never misled Director Comey.”
Last week, it was reported that McCabe’s public statements were at odds with former FBI Director James Comey’s statements to investigators.
McCabe has publicly stated he was permitted to allow FBI officials to speak to the media and that Comey had been informed of his behavior. But Comey told internal investigators at the DOJ that he did not recall McCabe notifying about authorizing FBI officials to speak with the reporter about an ongoing investigation.
McCabe wrote an op-ed published by the Washington Post last month in which he claimed he did not “knowingly” mislead investigators, despite being accused of a “lack of candor.”
“At worst, I was not clear in my responses, and because of what was going on around me may well have been confused and distracted — and for that I take full responsibility,” McCabe wrote. “But that is not a lack of candor. And under no circumstances could it ever serve as the basis for the very public and extended humiliation of my family and me that the administration, and the president personally, have engaged in over the past year.”
McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month, less than 48 hours before he was going to retire with a full pension.
