Ex-FBI Deputy Director McCabe Reportedly Admitted Lying About Role in Media Leak: 'I'm Sorry'
He’s sorry all right.
Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, admitted lying to investigators who were trying to find the source of a story leaked in October 2016 story about an investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails, according to The Daily Beast.
And when confronted with the impact of his deception — how it had increased the work hours of agents trying to determine how The Wall Street Journal was able to publish a report about the FBI investigating Clinton emails and the Clinton Foundation — McCabe response sounded like what a child might say when caught misbehaving:
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” he said, the news outlet reported.
It may have been one of the rare moments of truth to come out of the FBI’s upper echelon about the 2016 campaign since the bureau under former FBI Director James Comey lined up in solid opposition to Donald Trump’s election to the presidency.
According to The Daily Beast, which cited documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the moment of truth came in August 2017, about five months after McCabe was first questioned about the source of a Wall Street Journal report about an investigation of Clinton’s emails and potential influence peddling by the Clinton Foundation.
When McCabe first spoke to FBI investigators on March 9, 2017, according to the report, he said he did not “know how the story came to be.”
Yet in August, when McCabe was interviewed again about the story, he was asked point-blank if he was behind it.
“I need to know from you,” an agent said, according to a transcript cited by The Daily Beast. “Did you authorize this article? Were you aware of it? Did you authorize it?”
“And as nice as could be,” the transcript continued, “he said, yep. Yep I did.”
The agent was not happy.
“I remember saying to him, at, I said, sir, you understand that we’ve put a lot of work into this based on what you told us,” the agent said, according to The Daily Beast.
“I mean, and I even said, long nights and weekends working on this, trying to find out who amongst your ranks of trusted people would, would do something like that. And he kind of just looked down, kind of nodded, and said yeah I’m sorry.”
This is the same Andrew McCabe who’s suing the Justice Department over getting fired for lacking “candor” with FBI investigators, as DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz put it in a damning 2018 report.
This is the same Andrew McCabe who — when he still had a job with the FBI — suspended a veteran agent for speaking to a reporter about differences in the FBI’s handling of cases against retired Gen. and (briefly) CIA Director David Petraeus and retired Gen. and (briefly) National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
(Few will be surprised to learn the agent was concerned that Petraeus, who worked in the administration of former President Barack Obama, got relatively kid-gloves treatment from the FBI, while Flynn was simply railroaded out of the Trump White House.)
Out of all the characters who have emerged from the sordid revelations about top-level opposition to Trump, McCabe — who served as acting director of the FBI between the Comey firing in May 2017 and the appointment of current Director Christopher Wray in August 2017 — is one of the most infuriating, practically personifying “the swamp” in action.
And social media comments about the latest story showed it:
No – this was a “false official statement” – a lie – and McCabe should be charged just like the @FBI charged @GenFlynn – McCabe admitted to the leaking and he should be charged with leaking as well:https://t.co/9FMTRS6nsH
— Tony Shaffer (@T_S_P_O_O_K_Y) January 2, 2020
An apology doesn’t cut it. He needs to be charged with the crimes he committed.
— Dannette (@Marechtare1) January 2, 2020
how many people get prosecuted for lying to the fbi? he should be charged
— Look, Fat (@jer2911tx) January 2, 2020
With a wife whose run for the Virginia Senate reportedly benefited from at least $1 million in campaign donations from Hillary Clinton allies, McCabe still saw fit to hold a leading role in the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s emails.
Even after being fired by the FBI, his arrogance is undiminished — taking a job as a contributor to the anti-Trump network CNN and using the Democratic fundraising circuit to flog his own anti-Trump book, “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump.”
And now comes public proof that McCabe admitted lying to investigators about a media leak he authorized. According to The Washington Times, the Justice Department is considering criminal charges against McCabe for the behavior described in the Horowitz report.
McCabe might have apologized to the agent in the transcript, but his behavior since being canned, especially suing the Justice Department as though he had a legitimate grievance, shows those were words without meaning.
But that doesn’t change the essential fact: He’s sorry all right. Just maybe not the way he thinks.
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