Jill McCabe, the wife of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, falsely claimed in a Monday op-ed that her husband "kept himself separate" from her state senate campaign.
McCabe, who ran in 2015 as a Democrat for a Virginia State Senate seat, said the last year and a half have been a "nightmare" for her and her family because of "twisted reporting and presidential tweets." She wrote in her Washington Post op-ed that she is now, however, free to speak out because her husband is no longer at the FBI.
The "accidental politician" highlighted how she and her husband met, her career in the medical field, and various aspects of her state senate campaign in 2015, including her support from former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) and her husband's role in the campaign.
"He consulted with the ethics experts at the FBI and committed to follow their advice," McCabe said of her husband. "We tried to go even beyond what the rules required — Andrew kept himself separate from my campaign," she claimed.
While Andrew McCabe didn't attend his wife's campaign fundraisers or go door-knocking with her and their children, he may have violated the Hatch Act and corresponding department regulations for discussing his wife's campaign on his work email. FBI employees are forbidden from "engag[ing] in political activity while on duty, in a federal facility, wearing a uniform or official insignia, or using a federally-owned or leased vehicle," according to guidance from the DOJ’s Departmental Ethics Office.
"Jill has been busy as hell since she decided to run for VA state senate (long story). Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate," wrote McCabe on Aug. 19, 2015.
He also wrote, "I am so proud of her. She will do a great job for VA if she gets elected" from the same email account on Nov. 1, 2015.
McCabe noted in her op-ed that her husband wore her campaign t-shirt at a swim meet for a family picture one day, and that picture "took on a weird life of its own." McCabe shared the picture on campaign social media accounts.
Starting our day at swim meet in Lovettsville. Can't wait to knock on doors here after the meet! #SD13 #TeamMcCabe pic.twitter.com/OTxJf8GmwI
— Dr. Jill McCabe (@DrJillMcCabe) July 18, 2015
"One day he put on a campaign T-shirt so we could take a family picture and share it with my proud parents. You may have seen it — it seems to have taken on a weird life of its own — but that was it, just a family picture at a swim meet," she wrote in the op-ed.
New York Times reporter Adam Goldman, who covers the FBI and national security, shared the op-ed on Twitter without questioning McCabe's claim about her husband separating himself from the campaign.
This: https://t.co/CUbpXZrh4E
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) April 2, 2018
Since being fired from the FBI by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month, McCabe has received over $550,000 on GoFundMe for his legal defense fund.