McCabe in the crosshairs

Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe’s legal team has been notified that the Justice Department authorized prosecutors to seek an indictment against him for lying to investigators, according to two people familiar with the matter, though it remains unclear whether McCabe will be charged.


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Last month, McCabe’s team had appealed to Rosen in what was considered one of the final efforts to persuade officials not to move forward and seek an indictment from a grand jury. The legal team had been waiting to hear back.

The notification comes as a federal grand jury investigating McCabe was suddenly recalled this week after a months-long hiatus — an indication its members would likely be asked soon to consider bringing charges. But the panel was let go Thursday with no immediate signs of an indictment — a sign they might have balked, been asked to return later or filed a determination under seal.

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The decision, whenever it is made clear, is likely to inflame partisan divisions and once again thrust the Justice Department to the center of a political combat zone.

McCabe authorized the FBI to begin investigating President Trump and has long been a target of the commander in chief’s ire. His defenders are likely to view any charges against him as the most sinister form of Trump’s revenge.[McCabe] was involved in supervising two of the bureau’s most politically sensitive and high-profile cases: the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and the inquiry into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election.

When Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James B. Comey in May 2017, McCabe took over for him on an acting basis.

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Around that time, a Wall Street Journal report detailed tension inside the FBI and Justice Department over the Clinton email case and a separate investigation into the Clinton family foundation.

McCabe now acknowledges he authorized two FBI officials to speak to a reporter for that story. But he initially denied having done so when FBI officials — and, later, the inspector general’s office — tried to determine who might have spoken to the media. The inspector general accused McCabe of lying at least four times, three of them under oath, and even misleading Comey, his boss.

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Based on the inspector general’s findings, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe from the bureau in March 2018.

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McCabe has disputed he did anything wrong, and his lawyer has said his statements to investigators “are more properly understood as the result of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and honest failures of recollection based on the swirl of events around him.”

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He has since filed a lawsuit, alleging his firing was part of a plot to purge the Justice Department of those who would not be loyal to Trump.

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McCabe, meanwhile, wrote a book that aired out unflattering details about his interactions with Trump, and CNN hired him as a contributor.

  WaPo

From attorney and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti:

It looks like federal prosecutors are trying to indict McCabe but may have serious issues with their case.

If true, that doesn’t bode well for them, given that McCabe has the means to mount an aggressive defense.

UPDATE 9/13: