Disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired in 2018 after the Department of Justice concluded he lied to federal investigators about leaking classified information.
Now, the Department of Justice, which seems to be less in the business of justice and more in the business of political targeting and rewarding of President Joe Biden’s political allies, has agreed to expunge McCabe’s record and restore his pension, including $200,000 it believes it owes him.
The department has settled a lawsuit brought by McCabe wherein he alleged he was terminated for political reasons. Lying to federal law enforcement officers, by the way, is a crime. At least for most of us.
On top of reinstating his pension and erasing his record, the department has also agreed to bestow upon McCabe all the benefits that come with retiring from the FBI in good standing.
“The agreement even made clear that he would receive the cuff links given to senior executives and a plaque with his mounted F.B.I. credentials and badge,” the New York Times reported.
It’s unclear whether the department plans to destroy its own inspector general’s report concluding that McCabe had, in fact, leaked classified information and lied to federal agents.
No matter! McCabe is taking a victory lap anyway.
“Politics should never play a role in the fair administration of justice and Civil Service personnel decisions,” he said this week in a statement. “I hope that this result encourages the men and women of the F.B.I. to continue to protect the American people by standing up for the truth and doing their jobs without fear of political retaliation.”
The situation with McCabe was rotten enough as-is before this announcement. Recall that the Department of Justice in February 2020 declined to pursue charges against McCabe, even though its own investigators determined he lied to federal law enforcement agents about leaking sensitive information to the press.
In 2016, McCabe, who is now a paid CNN contributor, quietly fed journalists details of the bureau’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation. He then misled members of the FBI’s Inspection Division when they interviewed him about the leaks, according to a February 2018 Justice Department inspector general report. McCabe provided investigators with at least four misleading statements, three of which were given while under oath.
Again, it cannot be stressed enough that giving false statements to federal investigators is a crime. In fact, it is the same crime for which the Department of Justice prosecuted former President Donald Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. (If only Flynn had worked for the FBI — or supported the Democratic Party!) But I guess these laws apply only to troublesome right-wing operatives, and not protected Washington insiders. Indeed, with the Department of Justice’s decision to act as if McCabe didn’t break the law, he joins an exclusive club of disgraced former bureaucrats, including perjurers such as former CIA Director John Brennan and disgraced former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, who’ve skated on charges they 100% would’ve brought against anyone else.
McCabe’s legal team maintains his “story changed” because “he was surprised by and unprepared for the question during his May 2017 interview and was preoccupied with other major events,” the Washington Examiner’s Caitlin Yilek and Jerry Dunleavy reported last year. The inspector general found this explanation “wholly unpersuasive,” as it would be if it were invoked by anyone else under FBI questioning.
“It seems highly implausible that McCabe forgot in May what he recalled in detail during his November inspector general testimony,” said Inspector General Michael Horowitz. “In our view, the evidence is substantial that it was done knowingly and intentionally.”
The report also found McCabe misled not only the Office of the Inspector General, but also then-FBI Director James Comey.
Moreover, Horowitz added, McCabe’s actions were “designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership [and] violated the FBI’s and the Department’s media policy and constituted misconduct.”
Now, we’re being told it’s as if the Horowitz report never even happened. Again, the Department of Justice may wipe clean McCabe’s personnel file, but what are its plans for its own inspector general report, the contents of which were made available to the public?
Oh, by the way, on top of having his record expunged, his pension restored, and getting his cute retirement cuff links and plaque, the Department of Justice has agreed to pay McCabe’s $500,000 legal fees. As in, the Department of Justice is using your money to pay a dirty officer’s legal fees.
“What happened to Andrew was a travesty, not just for him and his family, but the rule of law,” one of McCabe’s lawyers said this week following the department’s announcement. “We filed this suit to restore his retirement benefits, restore his reputation, and take a stand for the rights of all civil servants, and that’s exactly what this settlement does.”
Lastly, here’s an interesting detail from the New York Times’s report on the department’s announcement: “With the lawsuit resolved, the Justice Department and F.B.I. avoid the risk that moving toward a trial could produce embarrassing information through the discovery process and depositions.”
Well, at least they all avoided an “embarrassing” situation. All they needed to do was subvert the rule of law!
More seriously, this is an obscene demonstration of the two-tiered justice system in this country.
If any obscure private citizen did what McCabe did, he’d be rotting in a prison cell right now. But not McCabe — he gets a clean record and all the trappings that come with retiring from the FBI with honor and distinction.
How’s that for “justice”?
T. Becket AdamsThe views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal
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