PAPER: Political Fight Could Become a Blood Feud Following the Firing of Andrew McCabe

Are things about to get a lot worse for the FBI?

The firing of Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s Deputy Director, may be just the beginning of the agency’s problems.

Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board writes:

For a microcosm of the current madness of American politics, look no further than the weekend meltdown after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe late Friday.

Mr. Sessions acted on a recommendation by the FBI’s own Office of Professional Responsibility, but Democrats and the media ignored that and called the firing part of Donald Trump’s plot to undermine the FBI and steal American democracy. […]

Yet, that didn’t stop the Democrat-media complex from crying foul.

On Sunday, The Federalist‘s senior editor Mollie Hemingway reminded mainstream media reporters, claiming that FBI Deputy Andrew McCabe’s firing was vindictive, that he was under investigation before Donald Trump became President.

“It is really important I think for mainstream journalists to tell this story accurately. Andrew McCabe was under investigation before Trump was even taking office. The Office of Professional Ethics found that he was in need of being fired,” Hemingway told Fox News.

“Yes, there are a lot of other issues. He was involved in quite a few leaks during the Trump administration, and I think Trump takes that quite personally, but this is separate from that.”

“This is about the FBI’s career personnel and the Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility saying this guy should be fired,” Hemingway concluded.

Back to the Wall Street Journal:

The Justice Department’s Inspector General has been examining the department’s handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server—a probe demanded by Democrats on grounds that former FBI Director James Comey’s 2016 intervention cost her the election. The IG uncovered “allegations of misconduct” by Mr. McCabe, Mr. Sessions’s statement said, which it forwarded to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) that is composed of career officials.

Naturally, Mr. McCabe and his partisans let it be known that he had shared with Mr. Mueller memos that he had written after his meetings with Mr. Trump. Oh, and John Brennan, Barack Obama’s CIA director, tweeted in response to Mr. Trump’s tweet that, “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.” […]

The country should be waiting for the facts of the multiple investigations to come out and then make a political judgment. Instead the brawl over the 2016 election has become a blood feud in which the facts seem irrelevant. This is going to get a lot uglier before it’s over.

On Saturday, law Professor Jonathan Turley told CNN that he believes the termination of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe suggests then-FBI Director James Comey lied to Congressional investigators, while under oath, about leaking information to the media.

https://twitter.com/joshdcaplan/status/975136292261556224

Law & Crime report:

After briefly discussing McCabe’s potential liability for allegedly misleading investigators, the liberal law professor shifted gears and started discussing how Comey fits into all of the drama and intrigue.

Turley noted, “This could easily spin further out of control. There was one line in the case statement last night that I immediately flagged. Because he said that he had authority to do this and he conferred with the director—the director at the time was James Comey.” Turley continued:

Now, the problem there is that James Comey said under oath that he never leaked information and never approved a leak. So, if the Inspector General believes this was a leak to the media, it raises serious questions about Comey’s previous testimony and could get him into serious trouble.

Below is a comparison of Comey’s 2017 testimony and McCabe’s statement on the subject of leaking.

 

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