I will be very clear up front–I have no inside information about what John Durham is going to do. But if he is simply following the facts and the evidence, Andrew McCabe will be one of the first to fall in the probe into the failed coup to destroy the Presidency of Donald Trump. The record on this is indisputable. He lied in three separate instances–1) He lied to FBI investigators, according to Michael Horowitz, 2) He lied to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and 3) He lied to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
McCabe’s record of lying starts with questions put to him by FBI investigators about leaks of sensitive FBI evidence to the media in the fall of 2016:
Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe faced scorching criticism and potential criminal prosecution for changing his story about a conversation he had with a Wall Street Journal reporter. Now newly released interview transcripts show McCabe expressed remorse to internal FBI investigators when they pressed him on the about-face.
In the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, the Journal broke news about an FBI investigation involving then-candidate Hillary Clinton, describing internal discussions among senior FBI officials.
The apparent leak drew scrutiny from the bureau’s internal investigation team, which interviewed McCabe on May 9, 2017, the day President Donald Trump fired James Comey from his post as FBI director. The agents interviewed him as part of an investigation regarding a different media leak to the online publication Circa, and also asked him about the Journal story.
In that interview, McCabe said he did not know how the Journal story came to be. But a few months later, his story changed after he reviewed his answer.
McCabe’s actions as an Artful Liar did not result in a prosecution. The Trump Justice Department reportedly decided to take a pass on that front, conceding that McCabe might prevail by insisting he just misremembered.
But subsequent statements by McCabe before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees expose him as a terminal liar.
Let us start with McCabe’s testimony in December 2017 before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He completely misled and deceived the members of HPSCI about the investigation into General Michael Flynn. McCabe testified as follows:
MR. GOWDY: Why did the Bureau interview General Flynn when they did? What was the reasoning for the interview?
MR. MCCABE: Because the – I’m trying to reassemble this chronology in my mind, but to the best of my recollection, we interviewed General Flynn at that time because of the existence of the – of his conversation, the record of his conversation with Ambassador Kislyak had become widely known through press reporting.
And at that point, there was really – there was no – that part of the investigation had become so widely known there was no -. there was no reason to continue, kind of, in a covert investigative posture and so we wanted to sit down with General Flynn and understand, kind of, what his thoughts on that conversation were.
MR. GOWDY: Was he interviewed because the Vice President relied upon information from him in a national interview?
MR. MCCABE: No. I don’t remember that being a motivating factorbehind the interview.
MR. GOWDY: So he would have been interviewed even separate and apart from the fact that former Acting Attorney General Yates believe that he had mislead the Vice President, and that needed to be addressed?
MR. MCCABE: He would have been interviewed either way (see pages 136-137).
Documents declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General remove any doubt that McCabe was lying.
The most stunning revelation from documents released on 30 April 2020, shows that the FBI agents, who investigated Michael Flynn aka “Crossfire Razor”, RECOMMENDED on the 4th of January 2017 that the investigation of Flynn be closed. Let that sink in. The FBI agents investigating Flynn found nothing to justify either a criminal or counter-intelligence investigation more than two weeks before Donald Trump was inaugurated as President. Yet, FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Director McCabe, with the help of General Counsel Jim Baker, Assistant Director for Counter Intelligence Bill Priestap, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok decided to try to manufacture a crime against Flynn.
The documents released on Wednesday made clear that as of January 21st, the FBI Conspirators were scrambling to find pretext for entrapping and charging General Flynn. This part of the transcription of Bill Priestap’s handwritten notes makes clear the intent of McCabe and others involved in the plan to entrap Flynn:
“Our goal is to determine if Mike Flynn is going to tell the truth @ the Russians . . . . What is our goal? Truth/Admission or get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.”
The 30 April 2020 document dump shows clearly that McCabe was one of the architects of creating the perjury trap to destroy Michael Flynn. The key document that destroys McCabe’s claim that the interview of Flynn was provoked by a leak to the media is the “Closing Communication” PDF dated 4 January 2017. It is a summary of the FBI’s investigation of Crossfire Razor (i.e., Mike Flynn). The document begins with this summary:
The FBI opened captioned case based on an articulable factual basis that Crossfire Razor (CR) may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security. . . . Specifically, . . . CR had ties to various state-affiliated entities of the Russian Federation, as reported by open source information; and CR traveled to Russia in December 2015, as reported by open source information.
The Agent conveniently fails to mention that Flynn’s contacts with Russia in December 2015 were not at his initiative but came as an invitation from his Speaker’s Bureau. Moreover, General Flynn, because he still held TS/SCI clearances, informed the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the trip, received permission to make the trip and, upon returning to the United States from Russia, was fully debriefed by DIA. How is that an indicator of posing a threat to the national security of the United States?
The goal of the investigation is stated very clearly on page two of the document:
. . . to determine whether the captioned subject, associated with the Trump campaign, was directed and controlled by and/or coordinated activities with the Russian federation in a manner which is a threat to the national security and/or possibly a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, 18 U.S.C. section 951 et seq, or other related statutes.
And what did the FBI find? NOTHING. NADA. ZIPPO. The Agent who wrote this report played it straight and the investigation in the right way. He concluded:
The Crossfire Hurricane team determined that CROSSFIRE RAZOR was no longer a viable candidate as part of the larger CROSSFIRE HURRICANE umbrella case. . . . The FBI is closing this investigation. If new information is identified or reported to the FBI regarding the activities of CROSSFIRE RAZOR, the FBI will consider reopening the investigation if warranted.
This document is dated 4 January 2017. But Peter Strzok sent a storm of text messages to the Agent who drafted the report asking him to NOT close the case making it quite clear that Comey and McCabe wanted the Flynn investigation to stay open.
Remember, McCabe told HPSCI that the Bureau only interviewed Flynn because of a piece written by David Ignatius that appeared on 12 January 2017 in the Washington Post.
McCabe’s lies before HPSCI were referred to the DOJ for possible prosecution.
And now we have evidence that McCabe did the same thing–i.e., lied–a couple of months later when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday released an FBI memo from 2018 that he says shows investigators lied to the Senate about statements that the primary source for the Steele dossier told the FBI regarding the salacious document.
“This document clearly shows that the FBI was continuing to mislead regarding the reliability of the Steele dossier,” Graham said in a statement announcing the release of an eight-page briefing document that the FBI provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee in February 2018.
The memo summarizes what Igor Danchenko, the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele, told the FBI during interviews in early 2017. Steele relied primarily on Danchenko, a Russia analyst, to collect information for an investigation into Donald Trump’s possible ties to Russia.
McCabe was the one who briefed the SSCI on the Steele Dossier and its primary subsource. You can read the redacted brief here. This briefing took place in February 2018. But McCabe knew in February 2017 that Danchenko had no genuine intelligence and was simply passing on rumors.
I believe that McCabe’s serial prevarication has caught the attention of Prosecutor John Durham. McCabe’s litany of lies are vast and vile and have harmed the security of the United States. This is not something that can be overlooked. What happens to McCabe will be a benchmark of whether John Durham and Bill Barr are serious about holding the coup plotters accountable.
Larry,
Shouldn’t Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein, Jim Comey and everyone who signed the Carter Page FISA application also be indicted for perjury? They signed a FISA application and made representations to the secret FISC on the basis of false information. Shouldn’t representations to FISC need double verification since the accused has no opportunity to defend themselves or confront their accuser?
An average American doesn’t get the option of saying I signed under penalty of perjury but I didn’t know what I was signing.
What about Clapper who lied under oath to Congress? The same crime for which Roger Stone was indicted and convicted.
We’ve got less than three months to know with certainty if we have a two-tier justice system as if Trump loses the election we can be certain that these violations of the law will be buried and forgotten.
And the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had no idea that they were involved in anything out of the ordinary? As long as they crossed the i’s and dotted the t’s this was just a routine case like hundreds of others and how could they have known the thing was a fix? Poor trusting souls, misled so badly by such bad people.
Utter bullshit. They were only dealing with what must have been the most explosively sensitive issue ever to come before them. We’re expected to believe they were innocents misled?
Sometimes not asking the right questions, and searching questions too in such a high profile case as this, shows complicity just as much as if they’d been assisting.
Average Americans are not held to an oath of office when taking high level government jobs either.
So indeed, these folks are special, but not subject to special rules when they violate that same oath. In fact they chose themselves to be sujected to a higher standard of conduct. Time for them to honor those choices they made.
Deap
“Average Americans are not held to an oath of office when taking high level government jobs either.” Not so.
Larry,
“But McCabe knew in February 2017 that Danchenko had no genuine intelligence and was simply passing on rumors.”
Did McCabe know Danchenko was employed by Steele and previously by Brookings for 5 years (a period that also coincided with Fiona Hill working there.)?
Blue Peacock,
Yes, everyone who signed off on those applications should be brought up on charges. I don’t know if that will happen, however. Based on what I know of Barr from friends who worked very closely with him, Barr understands the threat that allowing a two tiered justice system poses to the future and he is intent on correcting that abuse.
Fred,
Yes. He knew. He was involved with the Steele Dossier as early as July 2016.
blue peacock,
There were more than one FISA application to surveil Carter Page. Each application extended the time of surveillance. FISA surveillance is not only current electronic communications but also past as well as surveillance of everyone that the target is and has communicated with.
You correctly point out that FISC is a secret court with no opportunity for the accused to contest the allegations.
The fact that Sally Yates and Rod Rosenstein signed off on those applications without any verification of the representations made, if they are to be believed, is outrageous. An American citizen’s and all those in contact with this citizen have had their liberty taken on the basis of known false evidence. It can’t get more outrageous than that.
The only redress is the maximum punishment! If that does not happen let’s be clear, we no longer have a functioning constitutional republic and we’re living in an Orwellian state.
Halderman, Erhlichman, Dean, Mitchell, on down the Nixon food chain, all ended up in the slammer for their misdeeds. What has changed since then?
Excuse my awkward phrasing regarding federal employees and their oath of office, which does set them apart from members of the private work force:
…..”On their first day on the job, all Federal employees hold up their right hands and take an oath of office to bear truth, faith and allegiance to the United States. This oath underscores that working for the Federal government requires a unique level of public service and dedication……”
Nothing will happen until after the election, if then. I want to think of Barr as a good man, but he is part of the establishment, and he will protect the establishment.
NEVER EVER FORGET that McCabe’s wife was an out-of-the-blue candidate who ran for public office (VA State Senator) in 2015, during which she reportedly received over $650,000 in support from Clinton crony, then VA Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Her candidacy was suspicious in that she had no previous political experience (she’s a physician who was on record as having voted in a Republican primary!) and it was promoted over the local VA Democratic Party’s recommended candidate, a well-known retired Army colonel, attorney and party activist.
And yet McCabe, during this same time, was rapidly promoted to #3 in the FBI and didn’t recuse himself from the Hillary Clinton email scandal investigation until one week before the 2016 election (and months after the infamous Comey press briefing in July when he declared Clinton would not be prosecuted), after the $650,000 donation came to light.
It’s obvious why there are some who would think the very generous political contribution to McCabe’s wife was in fact a backdoor bribe to her husband.
If McCabe, Comey, Strzok, Lisa Page and Priestap et. al were to form a law firm, they should use the name Perjury and Sedition, Attorneys at Law.
English Outsider
FISC is a rubber-stamp. This secret court exists not to protect and defend constitutional prerogatives but to provide the Potemkin Village facade of “judicial review”.
FISA & Patriot Act and all the other national security laws legislated and signed into law by overwhelming bi-partisan consensus are just cover to enable the national security apparatus to do anything and everything in secrecy and without any accountability.
Interfering in an election and framing a duly elected president is a natural evolution when “organs of state security” have zero accountability. Look at the kabuki in the so-called investigation of that. There’s the president himself who was nearly ousted in a coup spending his time crying on Twitter, who never exercised the power of declassification which accrues solely to his office. We are seeing now how the DOJ investigates itself, which is more pretension and obfuscation. Then you have senators with investigatory authority who pretend to investigate while running out the clock. Exemplified best by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who pretends to do something by writing stern letters to the FBI demanding to know who provided the SSCI false testimony, when he knows as it is in the public record which FBI officials briefed SSCI, and even more ludicrous even if it was not in the public realm, could have easily called his colleagues in the SSCI to find out.
There’s something rotten in the state of DC and the stench is only getting more vile. Yet even here on SST, let alone social media and corporate media, much of everything is viewed through a partisan lens, when clearly the depth of corruption has become so deeply ingrained and widespread that it pervades every institution in the nations capital.
Blue Peacock
“Yet even here on SST,” To what are you referring?
akaPatience,
“The Wall Street Journal cited campaign financial records that showed McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 political campaign of Jill McCabe, wife of Andrew McCabe, who is now the deputy director of the FBI. In addition, the Virginia Democratic Party donated an additional $207,788 to McCabe’s state senate campaign. ”
Those donations were before Mr. McCabe was newsworthy. That the state party would get involved in a state senate primary race is unusual, but not shocking, especially to some who have been involved in Democratic party politics. The concept of ‘hands off’ during primaries is honored more in theory than fact.
There is a well known bias amongst the Democrats for women candidates, picking one would only give a modest primary edge to one candidate over another. That may or may not have played out into the general election race later. The fact that a nationally prominent Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, who is tied to the Clinton patronage network and their wing of the DNC, would pick a female doctor would be a sign that that candidate had a great deal of national support and the fundraising that was going to come along as a result. It was a targetted seat and thus the focus on a candidate they thought could win.
Perhaps you could clairify the issue with the money, as both sides spent similar ammonts, close to $1 million, in a state senate race, which I would agree is an obscene amount of money. If you are implying an impropriety as to how it was spent, such as the rumours circulating around Ilhan Omar’s campaign spending being directed to a company owned by her husband, you should point to some proof, as it does not appear to be the case here. I supsect McAuliffe might have connections to people at the DNC would could be linked to the later Russia Hoax, I doubt very much that Jill McCabe knew anything about it nor just what her husband eventually became involved in, other that what came out in the press.
For reference Jill McCabe’s senate primary was on June 9th, 2015. Trump didn’t even announce his candidacy until the 16th, a week later. Steele wasn’t even a gleam in anyone’s eye, or drain on their wallet, then.
https://ballotpedia.org/Jill_McCabe
Col. Lang,
What I am referring to is that many correspondents address issues through a partisan lens. There was only one senator that voted against the Patriot Act. Sen. Russ Feingold a Democrat. On FISA abuse, the Republicans have had a majority in the Senate these past 4 years yet they did nothing. Both Republicans and Democrats have had majorities in the House in that same period, and even such a stalwart as Devin Nunes when he was Chairman of the Intelligence Committee knowing about the abuse passed the FISA renewal.
We have seen time and again that both parties are equally culpable in the corruption. With this degree of abuse, IMO, both FISA and the Patriot Act should be repealed. The DOJ, FBI and IC have demonstrated that they can’t be given such extra-constitutional powers.