McCabe Backpeddles Gives The Most Ludicrous Excuse For Misstatements To Investigators
I can't remember time when a former FBI director has written such a personal
op-ed in a major national newspaper about his termination at a top law
enforcement agency what jumps out at me and I've just been skimming through it
as well because it's new and within the last 10 minutes is how he talks about he
learned that he had been terminated at the FBI after 21 years not from the
Department of Justice not from the FBI but he says third hand from a friend of
his who saw the news breaking one of the cable networks and I want to draw your
attention to this one section he says so after two decades of public service I
found out that I had been fired in the most disembodied impersonal way third
hand based on a news account he goes on to criticize the president pretty openly
in this op-ed he says that he woke up the following morning March 17th to find
the president was celebrating his termination and he called that I'm
reading from a again unhinged public attacks on me that would continue into
my life after my service to the FBI president Trump's cruelty reminded me of
the days immediately following the firing of James Comey his old boss the
head of the FBI on this lack of candor questioned Martha his explanation for
what happened there has to be more to it for the Justice Department and the FBI
and their Internal Affairs Division to have terminated him for cause and I
think it's worth reminding people that when the former National Security
Advisor Mike Flynn was fired what those close to him told reporters is that he
also was kind of caught up in the confusion and the chaos of the new
administration and he didn't remember the sequencing of events that well from
his phone calls with the Russians yet he still was prosecuted and pled guilty to
lying to federal agents so it's a very similar story and in this case McCabe is
asking us to believe that this was an honest mistake and that he should not
have been punished for that Martha I mean it's a great point Catherine
because it's impossible to completely separate those two things it appears
that when you're dealing with internal investigations within the
Department of Justice lack of candor is the term that is used in this other case
for lying to the FBI and everyone knows that you know you can't lie when you are
being questioned by the FBI and as you also I think rightly highlight this was
an internal investigation he is responding to how the president
responded and clearly a lot of people have said that that the firing could
have been handled much better but the reality of it is in terms of how this
works that it was an internal Department of Justice investigation that led to him
first being sidelined and then ultimately fired correct yes and what I
find extraordinary as that he has published his piece in The Washington
Post and this is coming just about 48 hours after his old boss FBI director
Christopher Rea told NBC News that the termination of Andrew McCabe was totally
by-the-book and by the regulations so this op-ed on his face is really
challenging the version of events that was presented by Ray earlier this week
just one last question for you Katherine because I want people to understand you
know what he was accused of you know what what are the things that surfaced
in that report that that forced his resignation his stepping aside and then
ultimately his firing okay so the Inspector General was charged with
looking at the handling of the Clinton email case by the FBI and the Justice
Department and they also looked at media leaks in this particular case there was
a conversation with a reporter at The Wall Street Journal in October 2016 and
that's kind of where their different views on what happened McCabe says he
was within his rights to talk to that reporter about the Clinton email
investigation and the foundation investigation and that he had the
approval from his top boss at that time FBI director James Comey but if you read
the Attorney General's statement very closely what you'll see is that the
language does suggest that there were other occasions that McCabe appeared to
lack candor in their conversations with the IG so based on my reading of the
statement and just what I've learned through my reporting I don't think is
limited to this one episode of the media leak in October of 2016 I think
basically there's more to it all right so and what do we have here
we have a mess whatever divisions existed between the two parties in
Congress will likely grow deeper now with Republicans calling for a second
special counsel it complicates the mission of the first special council and
sets up competing prosecutions with Muller potentially being investigated by
a second Council whomever that may be if it happens it does by Attorney General
Jeff Sessions some time it had been rumored that his head was on trump's
chopping block this may have spared him absolutely vital to any resolution of
this war is the public release of the IG report which sparked this firing it's
expected to be released any day now inspector general Michael Horowitz is
respected known to be thorough and fair and longtime analysts say there must be
more in that report that is yet undisclosed further damaging evidence of
McCabe's wrongdoing to have resulted in such a punitive outcome his loss of that
21 year long pension yet Doug remarkable let's just walk through the
context a little bit because Andrew McCabe was not just any random FBI
official FBI agent this is someone as you say at the department well over 20
years very senior and was overseeing the Hillary Clinton email investigation and
has been accused at least of being favorable to Hillary Clinton at a time
when his own wife was running for state office as you know in Virginia and got
hundreds of thousands of dollars from a PAC controlled by Terry McAuliffe then
the sitting governor who was very close to the Clintons it was $700,000 in fact
that's an awful lot of money for a state Senate race and in the state of Virginia
but Andrew McCabe has been a central figure in so many FBI investigations
dating back to them and gauzy attack he was central in that the Clinton
investigation the Clinton Foundation investigation the Russian collusion
investigation he is a central player and there have been concerns among
Republicans on Capitol Hill that he was a political figure and it's not just his
failure to acknowledge it at the early juncture that his wife was a Politico
you know taking those kinds of contra bate contributions from a very close
Clinton ally but that he was politically motivated in other ways too and ends
we suspect that that might come out in the IG report that's why this IG report
is so key and why the the scrupulousness of Michael Horowitz and the vaunted
neutrality of Michael Horowitz is gonna weigh very very heavy and whatever this
I GE report has yes sir on Andrew McCabe does the fact that the Inspector General
did say did find that he lacked candor in some of his responses and that his
firing was recommended by career FBI officials does that give you pause and
doesn't suggest that in fact his firing was or maybe justified
you know his firing may be justified there's no way for us to know at this
point but even though it may have been justified it can also be tainted and I
think the president's badgering of the Attorney General his urging that he'd be
fired before his pension could vest and the fact that McCabe and every other of
the James Comey associates his general counsel a baker his chief of staff right
Viki who corroborate James Comey on the issue of potential obstruction of
justice every one of them has been targeted by the administration by the
Republicans and Congress and is this because they corroborate James Comey
that's a question we also have to answer well thank you Brad late today the
Attorney General's personal lawyer told Fox News the Jeff Sessions is not under
criminal investigation for lying to Congress about his Russia contacts
adding the Office of Special Counsel told him quote after interviewing the
Attorney General and conducting additional investigation the Attorney
General is not under investigation for false statements or perjury in his
confirmation hearing testimony and related written submissions to Congress
earlier today ABC News reported that former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe
oversaw a criminal probe obsessions who signed off on McCabe's termination two
days before his retirement the current FBI director Christopher Ray told NBC
News the firing was for cause and not politically motivated epital hill today
Republicans and Democrats warned the 28 midterm elections are in Russia's
crosshairs what I learned yesterday was was
horrifying after reading the Senate intelligence committees draft findings
on Russia's election meddling senator King predicted the next round
will be worse they weren't doing it for fun in 2016 what it looks like is a test
and it was incredibly as I say thorough and and comprehensive the no ballots
were changed the current and former heads of Homeland Security warned
against minimizing the election threat were there any votes that were affected
by this intrusion into any system in America not to my knowledge sir
secretary Neilson we have no evidence that any votes were changed once these
vulnerabilities have been made clear it's not just Russia that we have to
worry about the Senate panel heard the vulnerabilities include compromising
voter registration databases manipulating NGO tallies as well as
hacking websites to publish false results 18 months after the federal
election one senator who advocates for paper ballots and mandatory audits says
security vulnerabilities remain does your agency have the authority to
mandate basic cybersecurity in the electronic voting machines used in this
country no sir does any agency not to my knowledge not at the federal level the
witness is considered whether a foreign power has the ability to target swing
precincts altering voter registration data - so confusion and undermine
confidence the result is that on Election Day we start getting reports
about thousands of voters in different parts of the country who can't vote
because when they show up they're not registered that sounds like something
from a novel or a drama a dramatic presentation and the movies how
far-fetched is this I think your hypotheticals are very good would and I
think all Americans should be concerned about it the homeland security secretary
also testified that there is no higher government infrastructure priority than
securing the voting system Bret
close to him leaking the stuff out you don't like the guy quit but to be this
duplicitous and continue to leak things out it's dangerous and so I don't like
what he did but I really hate that there's someone in his inner circle just
wanted to make this definite look you don't like working for the president you
should resign your job there senator Rubio they're condemning a leak
regarding president Trump's call to congratulate vitomir pooped him Judge
Andrew Napolitano Fox News senior judicial analyst a lot to say on this
and judge nice to see you good morning morning apparently there's a phone call
in the executive schedule with the president upstairs in his private
residence if you leak in that capacity at the White House is that breaking the
law well it depends on what is leaked we actually have two leaks here we have the
leak of the existence and the general contents of the phone call and we have a
leak of a memo from general McMaster to the president listing bullet points as
to why she should not make the phone call so we have two leaks here generally
leaking something about your boss which your boss doesn't want leaked violates
your obligation to be loyal to the people that employ you and as a basis
for firing immediately the question is is it criminal it is probably not
criminal unless it contains classified materials or unless it materially
interferes with the ability of the government to do its job
suppose what was leaked revealed the existence of was sending 25,000 more
troops to Afghanistan tomorrow if that were leaked that would endanger the
troops well that could be maybe the president put those out there well I
mean look he's been going at it with the Intel committee for some time if they're
saying don't congratulate him this might be his way of saying hey to heck with
you the president of the boss the president has apparently complained
privately about the leak but not publicly I'm smiling because I wouldn't
put it past President Trump to use this as a way of saying I'm the boss you guys
don't tell me what to do just keep me safe and giving the information I need
and I'll decide what the public policy the government is going to be I'll
decide if I want to be friends with Vladimir Putin not you guys why was
Andrew McCabe investigating Jeff sessions did Jeff Sessions know about
this why are we learning about it's very very strange that Jeff sessions did
know about it Bob Muller knew about it and rod Rosenstein the number two person
in the DOJ who's Bob Moses know about the investigation was whether or not
then senator sessions and later on as the Attorney General committed perjury
when he told the Senate Judiciary Committee they didn't have any contact
with Russians that later turns out the contacts were very very ephemeral with
shaking hands with an ambassador at a reception at a at a receiving line the
more serious question is why wasn't he told if you and I or anybody watching us
now what's being investigated for perjury we should we should know we get
a letter from the investigating agency it's called a target letter please be
advised we're investigating you for this we think you did this is there anything
you'd like to tell us before we move forward with the investigation the
federal government does so the fact that he wasn't aware of it is that an
underhand deal do you think it's very odd that he wouldn't know about it I can
only conclude that McCabe and Rosenstein decided not to tell him for some policy
reason but I think they should have no question is was he also investigated for
misleading Congress because under the law I know this sounds that was part of
the investigation yes truthful answer an honest answer can also be misleading and
when you mislead Congress that's a separate crime from lying to Congress
well you got a piece out of called March Madness Washington style quick clip from
that about the FISA Court courts did hear no challenges the government and
grant whatever at once or not courts as we understand them they are government
hacks Wow you've been on a FISA Court jihad put
that to this length Isis here's what I want to know from you and the big
picture of this when you have democratic institutions that have been in place for
decades and they're under attack be it from the outside or internally is this a
long-term problem to our system or is it just a short-term battle what do you
believe long-term problem FISA is 40 years old in 1978 when it was started it
was started to prevent the government from spying on Americans and to
facilitate the government spying on foreign agents who were physically
located here over the course of 40 years a secret
court no records public government lawyers only no opposition to challenge
the government the judges slowly changed the procedure to allow spying on
Americans by the time Andy McCabe got there the spying on Americans was
commonplace he did it but he did what everybody else was doing I got a run
thank you you're welcome tin you thank you god bless you and God bless america
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