Andrew George McCabe (born March 18,1968[6]) is an American attorney who served as the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from February 2016 to March 2018 and as the acting Director of the FBI from May 9,2017,to August 2,2017.[7] He also serves as a professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government. McCabe joined the FBI as a special agent in 1996 and served with the bureau's SWAT team. He became a supervisory special agent in 2003 and held management positions of increasing responsibility until he was appointed deputy director of the FBI in February 2016. McCabe became the acting Director of the FBI following James Comey's dismissal by then President Donald Trump,and served in that position until Trump's appointment of Christopher A. Wray. McCabe later departed from the FBI on poor terms with Trump. After leaving the Trump administration,McCabe has been a contributor at CNN since 2019.[8]
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on March 16,2018,26 hours before his scheduled retirement.[9][10] Sessions announced that he based his decision on reports from the DOJ Inspector General and the FBI's disciplinary office saying that McCabe had improperly authorized releases of information to The Wall Street Journal about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation and had misled agents who questioned him about it on four occasions,three of which were under oath.[11] McCabe disputed these charges and alleged that his firing was politically motivated.[12][13][14][15] In September 2019,federal prosecutors recommended McCabe be indicted for actions relating to the leak,[16] but the grand jury did not return an indictment.[17] On February 14,2020,the Justice Department informed McCabe's attorneys that it had declined to prosecute McCabe.[18]
In August 2020,George Mason University announced McCabe would be joining the faculty of the Schar School of Policy and Government as distinguished visiting professor.[19][20]
In October 2021,McCabe settled with the Justice Department a wrongful termination suit he had filed in August 2019. As part of the settlement,the government agreed to "rescind and vacate" McCabe's termination,correct its records "to reflect that Mr. McCabe was employed continuously by the FBI from July 1996 until he retired on March 19,2018 as the FBI Deputy Director" in "good standing," restore his pension and other benefits,pay his legal fees and expunge any record of having been fired.[7]
Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (2016–2018)
FBI Director James Comey appointed McCabe as Deputy Director of the FBI on January 29,2016,and he assumed those duties on February 1,2016.[32]
On July 31,2016,the FBI opened its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into whether the Trump campaign was collaborating with the Russian government. Both Comey and McCabe were briefed on the Investigation. After Trump was elected,he was also briefed on the investigation.[33]
In March 2018,it was reported that,upon receiving a referral from Congress in 2017,McCabe had authorized a criminal investigation into whether Sessions had lied to Congress in 2017 about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak;the investigation was later closed.[34][35]
Comey termination
On May 9,2017,McCabe became acting director of the FBI after Trump dismissed Comey as director.[36] In the absence of a Senate-confirmed director,the deputy director automatically becomes acting director.[30] Statute allows the president to choose an interim FBI director (acting director) outside of the standard order of succession.[37] That process began on May 10,2017,as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein interviewed four candidates to serve as interim FBI director.[38] Sessions said that McCabe was "also under consideration".[38] Shortly after Trump fired Comey,McCabe visited the White House for an introductory meeting in the Oval Office with the president,during which time Trump reportedly asked him for whom he had voted in the 2016 election.[39] However,no interim director was named,and McCabe remained as acting director. Christopher A. Wray was ultimately nominated as the new director on June 7,2017,and confirmed on August 1,2017,at which point McCabe reverted to his position as deputy director.[40]
In a February 2019 interview with Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes McCabe said that in the days after Comey was fired,he ordered the probe of possible obstruction of justice by Trump,taking action to protect the Russian-interference investigation from successors who might terminate it,because he or Robert Mueller could be removed from their positions. He said "I wanted to make sure that our case was on solid ground and if somebody came in behind me and closed it and tried to walk away from it,they would not be able to do that without creating a record of why they made that decision."[41] McCabe also had concerns about whether Trump "had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests" causing "the highest levels of American law enforcement [to try] to figure out what to do with the president",including the possibility of advocating vice presidential and Cabinet use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to have Trump suspended from office,and ultimately removed by Congress. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein,who had previously been reported but denied having discussed such matters with his colleagues,denied McCabe's assertion as "inaccurate and factually incorrect".[42] McCabe's revelation prompted Senate Judiciary Chairman,Chuck Grassley,to promise investigation of the claims.[43]
Wall Street Journal articles and aftermath
McCabe speaking in 2016
The Wall Street Journal published on October 23–24,2016,regarding an investigation of the Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server,suggesting that McCabe had a potential conflict of interest caused by donations to his wife's campaign as a Democrat for the Virginia State Senate.[44] On October 24,2016,the Wall Street Journal reporter emailed an FBI official following up on McCabe's involvement in the FBI's investigation of the Clinton Foundation,which had begun in 2015. Four FBI field offices —New York,Los Angeles,Washington and Little Rock —were pursuing the investigation,with some field agents advocating that it be aggressively continued,while some supervisors and prosecutors believed there was insufficient evidence and that the investigation was too expansive. In July 2016,McCabe decided that the New York FBI office would continue investigating,with assistance from Little Rock. The Wall Street Journal reported that a senior Justice Department official called McCabe to express his disagreement with this decision,with McCabe reportedly asking,"Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?" to which the unnamed official replied,"Of course not." The contents of this phone call was included in the follow-up article that was published on October 30,2016.[45] Although the existence of the FBI's investigation in the Clinton Foundation had been leaked,the FBI up until that point had not officially confirmed the investigation.[citation needed]
In January 2017,the inspector general of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee investigated McCabe over concerns that he should have recused himself from the investigation of the Clinton email scandal.[46] The investigation ceased one year later,in January 2018,with the release of FBI documents showing that McCabe had followed FBI protocol regarding potential conflicts of interest.[47] In 2015,before his wife,Jill McCabe,ran for political office in Virginia,McCabe had notified the FBI about her plans and consulted with the FBI about how he would avoid a conflict of interest.[48] McCabe did not oversee the Clinton email server probe while his wife was running for office,and he was excluded from FBI investigations into public corruption cases in Virginia. According to USA Today,"the internal documents,published on the FBI's website,support what the bureau has asserted previously:that McCabe had no conflictswhen he assumed oversight of the Clinton investigation. His role began in February 2016,following his appointment as deputy director and three months after his wife lost her bid for a state Senate seat."[48] However,starting in July 2017 while McCabe was the acting director,Trump repeatedly attacked McCabe in Twitter comments,suggesting that Sessions should dismiss McCabe because of the potential conflicts being investigated,and taunting McCabe about "racing the clock" until his retirement.[49][50]
In May 2017,an investigation by the FBI Inspection Division into the leaks regarding the investigation in the Clinton Foundation was expanded to include the leak of the contents of the phone call that was published on October 30,2016. McCabe was interviewed twice by the Inspection Division,in May and August 2017,and the conflicting information in those interviews led the OIG to open an investigation in late August 2017.[51] This was a separate investigation from the ongoing one for conflict of interest.[citation needed]
Political pressure
In January,2018,the Nunes memo,which alleges improper activities in seeking a warrant to surveil former Trump associate Carter Page,was prepared by the House Intelligence Committee. It asserted that McCabe "testified before the [House Intelligence] Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier",a document many Trump supporters insist is completely false. However,McCabe's testimony was in classified session and no public transcript is available to confirm the Nunes memo assertion;disclosing contents of the classified testimony would be unlawful. Democratic representative Eric Swalwell,a member of the House Intelligence Committee,said the Nunes memo "seriously mischaracterizes the testimony of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe."[52] The Nunes memo also asserts that a text message from Peter Strzok discusses "a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an 'insurance' policy against President Trump's election". However,The Wall Street Journal reported on December 18,2017,that Strzok associates said the "insurance policy" meant the FBI continuing its investigation into possible collusion between Trump and Russians,in case Trump won the election.[53][54]
By January 2018,it was also reported that Sessions had been pressuring Wray to fire McCabe. However,Wray refused and reportedly threatened to resign if McCabe was removed.[55][56]
In February 2018,the OIG finished its second investigation into the FBI leaks. The result of the investigation was:"As detailed in this report,the OIG found that then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe lacked candor,including under oath,on multiple occasions in connection with describing his role in connection with a disclosure to the WSJ,and that this conduct violated FBI Offense Codes 2.5 and 2.6. The OIG also concluded that McCabe’s disclosure of the existence of an ongoing investigation in the manner described in this report violated the FBI’s and the Department’s media policy and constituted misconduct."[51] The report was not publicly released for another two months,but on March 1,2018 The New York Times and The Washington Post,stated the report concluded that McCabe was "responsible for approving an improper media disclosure",relating to the October 2016 Wall Street Journal article that reported on disagreements between the FBI and Justice Department over an investigation of the Clinton Foundation.[57][58]
In regards to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,the Justice Department Inspector General report published on December 9,2019,did not find McCabe engaged in politically biased actions against Trump.[59][60][61] After the report was published,McCabe said being accused of treason and being subject to years of personal attacks from Trump was "quite honestly terrifying",particularly as Trump had insinuated the proper punishment should be the death penalty.[62]
Resignation and firing
After meeting with Wray concerning the pending OIG report on the 2016 leaks and a possible demotion,[49][50] McCabe announced on January 29,2018,that he was stepping down as deputy director,effective immediately.[63] He then went on paid leave until his scheduled retirement date of March 18,2018,his 50th birthday,at which point he would be eligible for a retirement pension.[64] McCabe did not lose his entire pension.[65][66][67]
On March 14,2018,it was reported the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility,citing the inspector general's conclusions,had recommended that McCabe be fired,although McCabe had been notified of the recommendation on March 8.[68][69] According to Office of Personnel Management regulations,McCabe was entitled to a 30-day notice prior to dismissal,but that period could have been shortened to seven days if there is reasonable cause to believe an imprisonable crime was committed.[70] Sessions announced at 10 p.m. on March 16,2018,that he was taking the recommendation and firing McCabe,eight days after he had been notified of the recommendation to fire him. He cited the inspector general's report,which had not yet been publicly released,saying that "Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor– including under oath– on multiple occasions."[71] McCabe told The New York Times,"The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong. This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness."[72] It was unclear if Sessions knew at the time he fired McCabe that McCabe had authorized the criminal investigation of him in 2017.[34] McCabe was dismissed less than two days before he would have collected a full early pension for his FBI career. He may have to wait until age 57–62 to begin collecting pension benefits.[73] Trump immediately celebrated on Twitter,saying "Andrew McCabe FIRED,a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI– A great day for Democracy."[74]
On March 17,Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin offered McCabe a security post in his congressional office. With McCabe short by two days of work for a federal agency to receive his benefits,Pocan said that "Andrew McCabe's firing makes it clear that President Trump is doing everything he can to discredit the FBI and undermine the Special Counsel's investigation" and described his job offer as a "legitimate offer to work on election security". Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton was also reported to be considering offering McCabe a position in his office.[75]
On March 21,2018,FBI Director Christopher A. Wray stated that McCabe's firing was not politically influenced but done "by the book".[76][77] Also on March 21,immediately after McCabe's firing,a parallel situation was noted and reported:that just as Jeff Sessions had fired McCabe for lacking "candor",McCabe had,nearly a year previous to his own firing,authorized a criminal investigation into "whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives".[78]
On March 29,2018,McCabe opened up a GoFundMe site to collect money for the legal costs arising from defending himself from the various investigations. The site raised $213,000 in five hours,[79] and by the time it was shut down on April 2,2019,had raised more than $538,000.[80]
On April 13,the OIG report was released to Congress and obtained by the Associated Press,which then published it. McCabe issued a response to the report,disputing its conclusions.[81] The report found that McCabe lied to or misled federal investigators at least four times,with three of these instances occurring while he was under oath.[82][83] The report also stated that his approval of disclosures to the media was within his power,but was a policy violation because it was done "in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership".[82][83] McCabe's lawyer Michael R. Bromwich responded that the investigation and report had been politicized by pressure from Trump,and announced that McCabe intended to sue the Trump administration and senior officials for "wrongful termination,defamation,Constitutional violations and more".[84] McCabe filed suit in August 2019.[85] In September 2020,federal district court judge Randy Moss denied a Justice Department motion to dismiss the suit,allowing the case to proceed to the discovery phase.[86]
Legal and IRS proceedings
On March 19,2018,Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the FBI requesting documents related to McCabe's termination. The FBI said it would post the documents on its website,but failed to do so.[87] Instead,beginning in July 2018,the Justice Department brought the case before a grand jury attempting to indict McCabe for his actions outlined in the OIG report released in April,2018. False statements made during the course of internal DOJ investigations (administrative investigations) are typically punished by administrative discipline,rather than criminal prosecutions,and McCabe's attorneys asserted he was being singled out.[88][89] The grand jury apparently declined to indict McCabe,[89] and in September 2019 former DOJ inspector general Michael Bromwich,representing McCabe,wrote a letter to Jessie Liu,the US Attorney for the District of Columbia,stating "It is clear that no indictment has been returned" by the grand jury,based on press reports and a discussion he had had with the prosecutors involved in the case,Joseph Cooney and Molly Gaston. Such an outcome would be highly unusual,as grand juries return indictments for nearly all cases brought to them. Consequently,a failure to secure a grand jury indictment—which may require only a simple majority decision based solely on evidence presented by the government—could prove embarrassing to the DOJ,as it suggests the government's case could not win a unanimous trial jury verdict. McCabe's attorneys asserted the DOJ should drop the investigation if the grand jury did not return an indictment. The New York Times reported that two prosecutors on the case had recently left the DOJ,which is unusual in a case nearing an indictment,with one of the attorneys expressing reservations about the merits of the DOJ case. The Times also noted political undertones of the case,as McCabe had authorized the investigation into whether Trump had obstructed justice,and as a result he had become a frequent target of Trump's ire. McCabe filed a wrongful termination suit against the DOJ in August 2019,asserting his firing was intended to remove officials who had been deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump.[90][88][91][92]
In August 2019,McCabe filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Department of Justice,saying his firing,which took effect only hours before his scheduled retirement,was the result of Trump's improper political interference. His suit says he is "entitled to his full law enforcement pension and all other benefits,privileges,and rights currently being withheld".[93]
In early 2019,Attorney General William Barr assigned prosecutor John Durham to conduct an inquiry into the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.[94] On September 30,2019,it was reported that Durham had offered McCabe a plea deal that McCabe had rejected. McCabe and his attorneys denied having been offered the plea deal.[95] In a court proceeding the same day,Federal Judge Reggie B. Walton heard arguments stemming from a July 30,2018,lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington because the FBI had been unresponsive to its March Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The DOJ had requested an exemption from FOIA because "records or information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings." Walton told federal prosecutors that they needed to either file charges against McCabe or drop the investigation,saying "This is just dragging too long." Walton gave prosecutors a November 15,2019,deadline to file charges,saying he would order the release of the documents after that date if no charges had been filed.[96] In a November 14,2019,hearing,Walton excoriated prosecutors,suggesting they were stalling a decision whether to charge McCabe by using a "smoke screen" to deceive the court and continue the hold on the release of the documents,which he released.[97]
In December 2019,Trump nominated the DOJ official with oversight on the case,Liu,to serve as an undersecretary in the Treasury Department. The following month,Liu determined there was insufficient evidence to indict McCabe,and on February 1,2020,she was transferred to the Treasury Department to await her confirmation,as Barr replaced her with his close advisor Timothy Shea. Hearings for the confirmation were scheduled to begin on February 14. On February 11,Trump abruptly withdrew her nomination,and she resigned from the government the next day.[98][99][100][101] On February 14,2020,the DOJ advised McCabe's attorneys that he would not be prosecuted.[102] Later that day,The Hill said:"(S)ome have questioned whether the decision Friday to drop possible charges is an attempt to quell controversy surrounding the Justice Department's recommended sentencing for longtime Trump aide Roger Stone,which was reduced after complaints by the president." The Hill also quoted McCabe himself saying:“I don’t think I’ll ever be free of this President and his maniacal rage that he’s directed towards me and my wife since October of 2016 for absolutely no reason whatsoever."[103]-In a February 15,2020,tweet,Trump stated:"IG RECOMMENDED MCCABE’S FIRING" [104] The OIG made no such recommendation,having stated at the end of its report:"The OIG is issuing this report to the FBI for such action that it deems to be appropriate."[51]
On October 14,2021,the Justice Department reversed Mr. McCabe's firing,settling a lawsuit he filed asserting he was dismissed for political reasons. Under the terms of the settlement,the government agreed to "rescind and vacate" McCabe's removal and correct its records to reflect that McCabe retired in good standing on March 19,2018,as deputy director,and to pay his pension as well as $200,000 in missed pension payments.[105] The government also agreed to pay more than $500,000 in legal fees McCabe had incurred and expunge any record of his being fired from FBI personnel records.[105][106] On October 27,2021,Attorney General Merrick Garland testified about McCabe's lawsuit at an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee,stating that the DOJ lawyers defending the case "concluded that they needed to settle the case because of a likelihood of loss on the merits."[107]
In July 2022,The New York Times reported that both McCabe and Comey had been selected for the most invasive type of IRS audit after they had been fired from the FBI. The matter was referred to a Treasury Department inspector general on the day after the report.[108][109] The Times said that the odds of anyone being selected for such an audit are very low,and the odds of the two top former FBI officials both being selected by chance were "minuscule".[108] According to tax experts,both had an increased chance of being randomly selected for research audits because their incomes increased after their FBI careers ended –McCabe by his CNN punditry and Comey by his book deals and paid speeches.[110] The Times reported in November 2022 that Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly said the president told him Comey and McCabe were among his perceived political enemies he wanted to "get the IRS on".[111] Trump denied being involved in the audits.[112] An investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) concluded that the audits were in fact randomly selected and not political retribution.[113]
McCabe is married to Jill McCabe,a physician specializing in pediatrics,who was the Democratic candidate for Virginia's 13th Senate District in 2015.[117] They have two children,a son and a daughter.[118] He is a triathlete who occasionally[119] biked 35 miles (56km) to work from his home in Ashburn,Virginia.[28][120] When biking to work,he and his friend would switch off driving while the other biked. The one who did not bike would then drive both home at day's end. [121]
James Brien Comey Jr. is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his termination in May 2017. Comey was a registered Republican for most of his adult life but in 2016 he stated he was unaffiliated.
James Andrew Baker is a former American government official at the Department of Justice who served as general counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and later served as deputy general counsel at Twitter, Inc. before being fired by Elon Musk in December 2022.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a United States federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI director is appointed for a single 10-year term by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. The FBI is an agency within the Department of Justice (DOJ), and thus the director reports to the attorney general of the United States.
Rod Jay Rosenstein is an American attorney who served as the 37th United States deputy attorney general from 2017 to 2019. Prior to his appointment, he served as a United States attorney for the District of Maryland. At the time of his confirmation as deputy attorney general in April 2017, he was the longest-serving U.S. attorney. Rosenstein had also been nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2007, but his nomination was never considered by the U.S. Senate.
Michael Evan Horowitz is an American attorney and government official. He is the Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice.
James Comey, the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was fired by U.S. President Donald Trump on May 9, 2017. Comey had been criticized in 2016 for his handling of the FBI's investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy and in 2017 for the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections as it related to alleged collusion with Trump's presidential campaign.
The Robert Mueller special counsel investigation was an investigation into 45th U.S. president Donald Trump regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and was conducted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller from May 2017 to March 2019. It was also called the Russia investigation, Mueller probe, and Mueller investigation. The investigation focused on three points:
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
Trump associates and their connection to Russian officials and espionage
Possible obstruction of justice by Trump and his associates
Peter Paul Strzok II is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. He was the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division and led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Previously, he had been the chief of the division's Counterespionage Section and led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server.
The Nunes memo is a four-page memorandum written for U.S. Representative Devin Nunes by his staff and released to the public by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee on February 2, 2018. The memo alleges that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources" to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant in October 2016 and in three subsequent renewals on Trump adviser Carter Page in the early phases of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the post-election transition, this article begins with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017, and is followed by the second half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election is the official 568-page report of the actions taken by the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) during the 2016 U.S. presidential election connected with Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, prepared by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) "in response to requests from numerous Chairmen and Ranking Members of Congressional oversight committees, various organizations, and members of the public."
Reactions to the Special Counsel investigation of any Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election have been widely varied and have evolved over time. An initial period of bipartisan support and praise for the selection of former FBI director Robert Mueller to lead the Special Counsel investigation gave way to some degree of partisan division over the scope of the investigation, the composition of the investigative teams, and its findings and conclusions.
The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump is a memoir written by Andrew McCabe, the former Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The book was published by St. Martin's Press on February 19, 2019.
Crossfire Hurricane was the code name for the counterintelligence investigation undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from July 31, 2016, to May 17, 2017, into links between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia and "whether individuals associated with [Trump's] presidential campaign were coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election". Trump was not personally under investigation until May 2017, when his firing of FBI director James Comey raised suspicions of obstruction of justice, which triggered the Mueller investigation.
The Mueller report, officially titled Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, is the official report documenting the findings and conclusions of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and allegations of obstruction of justice. The report was submitted to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019, and a redacted version of the 448-page report was publicly released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 18, 2019. It is divided into two volumes. The redactions from the report and its supporting material were placed under a temporary "protective assertion" of executive privilege by then-President Trump on May 8, 2019, preventing the material from being passed to Congress, despite earlier reassurance by Barr that Trump would not exert privilege.
The Russia investigation origins counter-narrative, or Russia counter-narrative, is a narrative embraced by Donald Trump, Republican Party leaders, and right-wing conservatives attacking the legitimacy and conclusions of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and the links between Russian intelligence and Trump associates. The counter-narrative includes conspiracy theories such as Spygate, accusations of a secretive, elite "deep state" network, and other false and debunked claims. Trump in particular has attacked not only the origins but the conclusions of the investigation, and ordered a review of the Mueller report, which was conducted by attorney general William Barr – alleging there was a "deep state plot" to undermine him. He has claimed the investigations were an "illegal hoax", and that the "real collusion" was between Hillary Clinton, Democrats, and Russia – and later, Ukraine.
United States v. Flynn was a criminal case in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia which was dismissed without any convictions in December 2020 following a presidential pardon. Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general in the United States Armed Forces, had accepted President-elect Donald Trump's offer for the position of National Security Advisor in 2016 and then briefly served as National Security Advisor. He pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Flynn's alleged false statements involve conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when Flynn was incoming National Security Advisor to President-elect Trump, and Flynn agreed to cooperate with the Special Counsel investigation as part of a plea deal.
The Mueller special counsel investigation was started by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was serving as Acting Attorney General due to the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He authorized Robert Mueller to investigate and prosecute "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump", as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" and any other matters within the scope of 28 CFR 600.4 – Jurisdiction.
1 2 "Settlement Agreement, McCabe v. Garland, et al., No. 19-CV-2399 (D.D.C.)". Washington Post. October 14, 2021. pp.2–3. [T]he Parties agree to the rescission of Plaintiff's removal from the FBI and the civil service and to the conferral upon Plaintiff of the benefits specified herein. As detailed below, the FBI's records will be amended to reflect that Mr. McCabe was employed continuously by the FBI from July 1996 until he retired on March 19, 2018 as the FBI Deputy Director and a member of the Senior Executive Service.... Plaintiff will be deemed to have separated from the FBI in good standing for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 926C(c)(1).
↑ Zapotosky, Matt. "Justice Dept. won't answer whether grand jury turned down indictment of McCabe, his lawyers say". The Washington Post. Last week, it seemed charges were imminent. The grand jury, which had not been seen for months, was called back in. The Justice Department informed McCabe, 51, that Rosen had rejected his appeal. But grand jurors left with no sign that an indictment had been returned.
↑ "The School of Law"(PDF). One Hundred and Thirty-Second Commencement. Washington University in St. Louis. 1993. p.35. Archived from the original(PDF) on January 26, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
↑ Tatum, Sophie (January 23, 2018). "Washington Post: Trump asked acting FBI director McCabe who he voted for in 2016". CNN. Retrieved January 23, 2018. President Donald Trump asked acting FBI director Andrew McCabe who he voted for in the 2016 election in an introductory Oval Office meeting, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing several current and former US officials. The meeting happened in May, not long after Trump fired former FBI director James Comey, according to the Post.
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