Vindication.
Andrew McCabe, the former acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will not be charged over lying to federal investigators about a series of leaks he authorized to the media in 2016 regarding the long and torturous Russiagate investigation.
“At long last, justice has been done in this matter,” McCabe’s legal team said in a statement announcing the end of the investigation. “We said at the outset of the criminal investigation, almost two years ago, that if the facts and the law determined the result, no charges would be brought. We are pleased that Andrew McCabe and his family can go on with their lives without this cloud hanging over them.”
According to the Washington Post, McCabe’s attorneys Michael R. Bromwich and David Schertler said the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office phoned to say the case against their high-profile client “has been closed.”
That call was then followed up by a brief and formal letter from Fraud and Public Corruption Section Chief J.P. Cooney announcing the government’s decision to go with leniency.
“We write to inform you that, after careful consideration, the Government has decided not to pursue criminal charges against your client, Andrew G. McCabe,” the letter notes. “Based on the totality of the circumstances and all of the information known to the Government at this time, we consider the matter closed.”
McCabe, buoyed by his ace crisis management and public relations firm who work in tandem with his attorneys, quickly seized the narrative and the cable broadcast bandwidth by appearing on CNN to detail his thoughts. McCabe is a CNN contributor.
During that fast-assembled interview, the former FBI second-in-command described the ordeal as a “black cloud” and a “disgrace” which wrought unnecessary strain to his family. He also called the Trump administration’s investigation an “absolute disgrace” and chided the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the two years it took them to reach an “obvious conclusion.”
Despite McCabe’s complaints, the decision has, in fact, been a long time coming—and was apparently a complicated one at that. According to some, it looked like charges were imminent.
Cooney described the cases’s difficulty to a federal court last July:
The head of the DOJ unit that decided today not to prosecute Andrew McCabe testified in July that it was basically done investigating him and was “more in a decisional phase.” pic.twitter.com/SSeUuB0LWN
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) February 14, 2020
Three weeks later, Cooney told the court his “prediction was obviously incorrect.” The explanation for that is sealed. pic.twitter.com/h0iSTxjVgt
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) February 14, 2020
McCabe infamously authorized the FBI’s highly controversial counterintelligence investigation into Trump after the latter unceremoniously fired then-FBI director James Comey shortly after taking office.
McCabe was himself swiftly was axed by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in late March 2017–a job loss attributed to a “lack of candor” with investigators during an internal probe.
Within hours, Trump responded with glee:
Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!
McCabe has been open about his belief that Trump “escaped” a two-year investigation of his own.
Read the full letter below:
Andrew McCabe 2020 Dismissal Letter by Law&Crime on Scribd
[image via Pete-Marovich-and-Getty-Images]
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