Byron York's Daily Memo: DOJ memory holes Andrew McCabe wrongdoing
Byron York's Daily Memo: DOJ memory holes Andrew McCabe wrongdoing

By Byron York

DOJ MEMORY HOLES ANDREW MCCABE WRONGDOING. Andrew McCabe was the number-two man at the FBI during the years disgraced former Director James Comey was in charge. He was a critical part of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation targeting the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. He took part in the FBI’s misrepresentations to a secret foreign surveillance court when it wrongly wiretapped former campaign aide Carter Page. And he was found, by the Justice Department’s own inspector general, to have lied repeatedly to investigators looking into his leaks to the media during the Hillary Clinton email investigation. For that, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on March 16, 2018.

McCabe sued the Justice Department. As a result of his firing, just before his scheduled retirement, he received a smaller pension than he otherwise would have. Plus, he didn’t get retirement things such as FBI Senior Executive Service cufflinks and a plaque with his FBI badge on it. McCabe wanted it all back — plus, he wanted the department to expunge any record of his ever having been fired. Like it never happened.

Now, the Biden Justice Department has agreed to it all. The department settled McCabe’s suit and agreed to pay him $200,000 in back pension benefits. They’re giving him the cufflinks and the plaque — and they are expunging his record of any mention of that firing unpleasantness. Just for good measure, the FBI — that would mean you, the taxpayer — is also paying McCabe’s lawyers $539,000 in fees.

Some will be outraged at the money settlement, but perhaps the most outrageous part is the Justice Department’s decision to remove McCabe’s firing from his FBI record — to memory hole the entire thing as far as McCabe’s record is concerned. So in the interest of public disclosure, you can read Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report here . Horowitz found that McCabe “lacked candor” — the FBI’s phrase for lying — on several occasions when he was questioned about his contacts with reporters from the Wall Street Journal and other outlets. Here is a sample:

We found that, in a conversation with then-Director Comey shortly after the WSJ article was published, McCabe lacked candor when he told Comey, or made statements that led Comey to believe, that McCabe had not authorized the disclosure and did not know who did. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.5 (Lack of Candor — No Oath).

We also found that on May 9, 2017, when questioned under oath by FBI agents from [the Inspection Division], McCabe lacked candor when he told the agents that he had not authorized the disclosure to the WSJ and did not know who did. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.6 (Lack of Candor — Under Oath).

The inspector general’s office also found that McCabe “lacked candor” under oath on two other occasions, including lying to the inspector general, for a total of four instances, three under oath and one not. It also found McCabe violated FBI policy about disclosing the existence of an ongoing investigation.

Of course, McCabe had also shown appalling judgment on other occasions — for example, when he wanted to include the unsubstantiated allegations of the Steele dossier in the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election. But it is no small thing to lie to investigators repeatedly while under oath. For that, McCabe was fired.

But now, you won’t find any mention of that in the McCabe file at the FBI. The Biden Justice Department has made sure of that.

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