Charges against McCabe advised
Former acting FBI chief often targeted by Trump
WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors recommended seeking criminal charges against Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI and a frequent target of criticism by President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the decision Thursday.
McCabe was fired from the FBI just before his retirement in March 2018 after the Justice Department’s internal watchdog concluded that he improperly authorized a leak about a federal investigation into the Clinton Foundation in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The U.S. attorney in Washington, Jessie Liu, recommended moving forward with unspecified charges against McCabe, according to people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to comment publicly.
Whether McCabe is indicted will be up to a federal grand jury in Washington. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington declined to comment.
The recommendation that McCabe be charged is the latest fallout from the FBI’s handling of investigations around the 2016 presidential election, when agents investigated both of the majorparty candidates. Those investigations – into Russian meddling to help Trump win the presidency and Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server – inserted the FBI into the center of fraught political controversies.
Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe after a Justice Department Inspector General’s report found he misstated his involvement in a leak to The Wall Street Journal days before the election about an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation. He was ousted days before he could begin collecting retirement benefits.
McCabe, who became acting FBI director after Trump fired James Comey in May 2017, has been the target of the president’s attacks. Trump accused law enforcement officials of partisan investigations of him, his campaign and his administration. Inquiries led to charges against six of Trump’s aides and advisers.
The election-year investigations roiled the top ranks of the FBI. Internal investigators faulted McCabe and Comey for violating Justice Department rules in the final months of the campaign. Lower-level staffers were fired or reassigned.
The Justice Department said Aug. 29 that Comey violated bureau policies for keeping private memos about his conversations with Trump, then having a friend describe the contents of one memo to The New York Times. The department didn’t charge Comey criminally.
McCabe’s firing came after the inspector general investigated the information behind a Wall Street Journal story about the Clinton Foundation to determine whether it was an unauthorized leak and if so, who was the source.
Investigators determined that McCabe, to promote his impartiality, authorized associates to disclose a call Aug. 12 between McCabe and the principal associate deputy attorney general to The Wall Street Journal.
The inspector general found McCabe “lacked candor” when he said he hadn’t authorized the disclosure.