A public claim made by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired earlier this month, is at odds with comments from his former boss, ex-FBI Director James Comey, according to a yet-to-be-released Justice Department inspector general report.
The FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility had recommended McCabe be fired, a move that was prompted by findings in a report prepared by the DOJ watchdog, according to media reports. The inspector general determined that McCabe had misled them after they asked about authorizing the release of sensitive information to the Wall Street Journal.
Sources told CNN that Comey informed internal investigators at the DOJ that he did not remember McCabe informing about authorizing FBI officials to speak with the reporter about an investigation that was ongoing.
However, McCabe has publicly said that he was authorized to allow FBI officials to speak to the media and that Comey was aware of his actions.
Comey’s remarks were included in the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility report that prompted Attorney General Jeff Sessions to fire him earlier this month, less than 48 hours before he was going to retire with a full pension.
“It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and other, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter,” McCabe claimed in a statement after he was fired.
But one source attributed the inconsistency to the fact that both men remembered the interaction differently as they were acting “in good faith.”
The CNN report comes after Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who has seen the inspector general report, said it showed McCabe lied to agency officials a total of four times.
“It wasn’t once, it wasn’t twice, it wasn’t even three times, four times he lied about leaking information to the Wall Street Journal about the FBI,” Jordan said during an interview Thursday on Fox News.
McCabe has disagreed that he misled anyone and stood up for himself in an op-ed published by the Washington Post last week, claiming that although he had been accused of “lack of candor,” that was not the case and that he did not “knowingly” mislead investigators.
“At worst, I was not clear in my responses, and because of what was going on around me may well have been confused and distracted — and for that I take full responsibility,” McCabe wrote. “But that is not a lack of candor. And under no circumstances could it ever serve as the basis for the very public and extended humiliation of my family and me that the administration, and the president personally, have engaged in over the past year.”
