Watchdog report: Mccabe misled boss
Clinton disclosure given to media before election
WASHINGTON — Andrew McCabe, the fired FBI deputy director, misled investigators and his own boss about his role in a news media disclosure about Hillary Clinton just days before the 2016 presidential election and authorized the release of information to “advance his personal interests,” according to a Justice Department watchdog report.
President Donald Trump, already furious over a forthcoming book from fired FBI Director James Comey, lashed out after the report’s release by saying Mccabe had “LIED! LIED! LIED!”
The inspector general report concludes that Mccabe allowed
FBI officials to disclose non-public information to a Wall Street Journal reporter for a story about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation, violating agency rules, and then misled FBI officials when questioned about it.
It also reveals starkly contradictory accounts from Mccabe and Comey about how the conversations with the reporter had come to take place.
Mccabe, who was fired last month just two days before his scheduled retirement, denied the report’s allegations in a detailed rebuttal statement. He said that when he believed his answers to the inspector general were misunderstood, he went back and tried to correct them.
Mccabe’s statement noted that as deputy director he had full authority to authorize sharing information with the media and said he permitted subordinates to do so in this case to correct a false narrative that he