The Justice Department Inspector General last week recommended a criminal investigation into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe over whether he lied to officials about leaks regarding the Clinton Foundation investigation.
Media figures across the dial praised his integrity and career in public service in the months leading up to his firing in March, in large part due to President Donald Trump's sharply critical remarks about him while he was still with the administration.
However, a scathing IG report about McCabe's alleged misconduct was released earlier this month, charging that McCabe repeatedly made misleading statements about leaks over the Clinton Foundation investigation, NBC News reported:
The report says McCabe authorized the discussion of the FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation with a reporter from The Wall Street Journal in an effort to "rebut a narrative" about McCabe’s impartiality in the investigation. The reporter had previously written about McCabe’s wife, who took campaign donations from Hillary Clinton’s close political ally Terry McAuliffe for her run in a state election in Virginia.
The IG found that while McCabe was authorized to release such information to news reporters, he did so to "advance his personal interest" and "violated" the FBI’s and the DOJ’s media policy, and therefore his actions "constituted misconduct."
The report found that McCabe also contradicted his previous statements. During an interview under oath on Nov. 29, 2017, McCabe finally acknowledged that he had authorized the disclosure to the Journal. He then denied having said that he had not authorized the disclosure. The government watchdog found this contradiction to be in violation of the FBI’s offense code.