Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director who signed off on a fraudulent warrant to surveil a Trump campaign aide, claimed on Friday that there exists never-before-seen intelligence that would cast a “very negative light” on President Donald Trump.
McCabe was the FBI’s second-in-command when the bureau opened its investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. McCabe has emphatically defended the probe, even though a special counsel’s investigation determined that the Trump team did not conspire with Russia.
But he now insists, without providing evidence, that the intelligence community possesses information that is damning to Trump.
“There is some very, very serious, very specific undeniable intelligence that has not come out that if it were released would risk compromising our access to that sort of information in the future. I think it would also risk casting the president in a very negative light,” McCabe said in an interview on CNN, where he serves as a law enforcement analyst.
“It’s almost incomprehensible to me that he would want that information out. I don’t see how he spins it to his advantage. I don’t believe it’s flattering.”
McCabe issued the thinly-veiled warning to Trump in response to a question from anchor Chris Cuomo regarding the president’s desire to declassify documents related to the investigation into whether his campaign conspired with Russia in the 2016 election.
McCabe acknowledged during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that he would not have signed off on a warrant to conduct surveillance against Trump campaign aide based on recently revealed information. (RELATED: McCabe Says He Would Not Have Signed Carter Page FISA Warrants)
The FBI relied heavily on the unverified Steele dossier in its applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) orders against Page. A Justice Department inspector general’s investigation found that the FBI made at least 17 “significant” errors and omissions in its FISA applications, many of which dealt with the dossier.
McCabe blamed lower-level FBI employees for not informing officials about problems with the dossier.
In his interview, Cuomo floated the unfounded conspiracy theory that Trump is planning a military coup to remain in power following his election loss to Joe Biden.
“Let’s assume that this president doesn’t have coup ambitions, and that the next leading theory other than just pay back is he wants a lot of stuff from the Russia investigation declassified because he’s been told by Nunes and others, the more comes out, the more it will look like you were framed,” Cuomo said.
McCabe was fired in March 2018 after an internal FBI investigation determined that he displayed a lack of candor when he denied that he authorized leaks to the media in October 2016 regarding a story about an investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
An IG report released in April 2018 said that McCabe was less than forthcoming with investigators during four interviews, including two that were under oath.
Federal prosecutors conducted a grand jury investigation into whether McCabe made false statements to the government, but declined to issue an indictment.
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