Andrew McCabe’s lawyer is disputing allegations the former FBI deputy director misled his old boss, Jim Comey, about leaks to the media.
McCabe has October 2016 emails showing he and Comey were in communication regarding interactions with a Wall Street Journal reporter working on a story about the Clinton email investigation, attorney Michael R. Bromwich said.
“Emails between the two clearly show that Mr. McCabe advised Director Comey that he was working with colleagues at the FBI to correct inaccuracies before the stories were published, and that they remained in contact through the weekend while the interactions with the reporter continued,” Bromwich said in a statement.
Bromwich was responding to claims Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan made Thursday regarding a report from the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). OPR determined McCabe lied four separate times about his role in authorizing leaks to The Wall Street Journal just before the election, Jordan said.
McCabe instructed FBI lawyer Lisa Page to speak with WSJ reporter Devlin Barrett in order to portray McCabe’s role in the Clinton investigation in a positive light.
“Four times he lied. He lied to James Comey. He lied to the Office of Professional Responsibility, and he lied twice under oath to the inspector general,” Jordan said.
The report asserted that not only did McCabe not tell Comey about the leaks, he directly denied authorizing them, the Republican told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Members of Jordan’s staff and those working for North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows viewed the OPR report, which recommended McCabe be fired for a “lack of candor” regarding his role in the media leaks, the Ohio rep. added.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions accepted that recommendation, firing McCabe on March 16 — just 26 hours before he was set to retire.
McCabe denied in a March 23 op-ed that he lied about the leak authorization, though he did acknowledge giving answers “not fully accurate.”
“I did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators,” he wrote in an op-ed at The Washington Post.
“When I realized that some of my answers were not fully accurate or may have been misunderstood, I took the initiative to correct them,” he wrote.
In his statement, Bromwich accused Republicans of selectively leaking portions of the OPR report. Republicans “are attempting to selectively and unfairly leak pieces of information from a report that is not public” while attempting to pit Comey against McCabe, Bromwich said.
Comey’s memory of his interactions with McCabe was “equivocal and speculative” while McCabe’s is “clear, unequivocal and supported by documentary evidence,” Bromwich claimed.
He noted the existence of emails that will support his client’s claims.
It is not clear whether Bromwich is asserting Jordan’s OPR report comments are inaccurate or whether he is quibbling with the OPR’s findings. A representative at Bromwich’s law firm declined commenting on the record on the matter. A spokesman for the office of the inspector general also declined comment.
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