Federal prosecutors in Washington are close to deciding whether to indict former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe on charges of lying to the FBI about leaking to the media, the New York Times reported Monday.
Last week, McCabe’s lawyers met with Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and with D.C.’s top federal prosecutor, Jessie K. Liu, to discuss the investigation, according to the Times.
“The person would not detail the discussions, but defense lawyers typically meet with top law enforcement officials to try to persuade them not to indict their client if they failed to get line prosecutors to drop the case,” the paper noted.
NEW: Andrew McCabe’s lawyers met with the deputy attorney general and DC’s top federal prosecutor as DOJ decides whether to indict him. Lawyers usually ask for such meetings when line prosecutors won’t drop the case @adamgoldmanNYT https://t.co/tlWHcBC8L5
— Amy Fiscus (@amyfiscus) August 26, 2019
The Times confirmed that a grand jury in D.C. has been reviewing evidence and hearing testimony on the McCabe case.
Liu, it should be noted, refused to prosecute former Senate Intel staffer James Wolfe for leaking a FISA application to the NYT.
Jessie Liu refused to prosecute James Wolfe (SSCI director of security) for leaking a FISA application to the NYT.
Her reason to protect SSCI (Wolfe) is the reason to protect the FBI (McCabe).
The decision will have to be made for her. [Barr/Rosen]
img ht @TheLastRefuge2 https://t.co/sr3e5sxipF pic.twitter.com/p7bjjHCVHO
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) August 26, 2019
Wolfe was sentenced to jail for two months last December for lying to the FBI.
The Justice Department inspector general’s report found in February 2018 that McCabe had “lacked candor” regarding his involvement in a leak to the Wall Street Journal regarding an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The OIG referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which has been investigating.
CNN hired McCabe as a law enforcement analyst Friday, spurring an instant conservative media backlash.
This is a troubling trend for @CNN – they’ve hired Andrew McCabe and @AndrewGillum. I hope that in all these contributor contracts, CNN got the rights to the “Lockup” episodes.
I can’t wait for the “Lockup CNN Contributor Special” that is likely to come with their recent hires. pic.twitter.com/6ocrmuyB0t
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) August 25, 2019
McCabe opened a counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump in 2017 to probe whether he obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey.
Last February, he told Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “Today” show that the FBI briefed the “Gang of Eight” about a second investigation into Trump to examine whether he was a national security threat, claiming that none of the lawmakers objected.
Former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, however, told Fox News that he never knew about that investigation and didn’t think the Gang of Eight was told about it either. [The “Gang of Eight” are the leaders of two parties from the House and Senate, along with the leaders of each chamber’s intelligence committees, who are briefed on classified intelligence matters by the executive branch.]
McCabe also sent FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka to the White House in January of 2017 to interview General Flynn without a lawyer present, and opened a perjury investigation into his boss at the time, former attorney general Jeff Sessions.
The former G-man filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the Justice Department and the FBI over his firing, which came just over 24 hours before he planned to retire.
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