Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director fired for leaking to the media and who has become an antagonist of President Trump, will join CNN.
McCabe has spent the past year defending his actions at the FBI, writing a book, and pushing for Trump to be removed from office. McCabe joins another controversial Obama-era figure, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, as a contributor at the network.
McCabe filed suit in federal court earlier in August accusing Trump of causing his subordinates at the Justice Department to participate in an “unconstitutional plan and scheme” to have him fired. McCabe was fired the same day he planned to retire.
The department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a 39-page report in February 2018 detailing multiple instances where McCabe “lacked candor” with then-FBI Director James Comey and with investigators related to him greenlighting the disclosure to the media of sensitive information related to the FBI’s investigation into matters related to Hillary Clinton.
Comey says that he did not give McCabe permission to leak to the media. Sessions fired McCabe the next month, stating that McCabe “made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
McCabe called for impeachment proceedings against Trump on CNN in June, saying an inquiry is the only way Congress could hear important testimony.
McCabe is likely still being scrutinized by Horowitz as part of the DOJ watchdog’s investigation of allegations of abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The surveillance warrant applications targeting Trump associate Carter Page required the approval of top members of the FBI, the DOJ, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and the current and former government officials involved will likely face tough questions over their actions. McCabe was involved in the FISA approval process.
Former FBI Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson testified to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees last year that McCabe and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates approved the application before it got to her desk, an unusual process that led her to not second-guess her higher-ups.
Horowitz’s report is expected out in late September or early October.
