Justice Department prosecutors decided not to charge former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, Trinity ‘90, for allegedly lying to investigators, The New York Times reported Friday.
The decision ended a nearly two-year-long case stemming from allegations that McCabe misled investigators in 2016 about whether he improperly leaked information about the FBI’s probe to Hillary Clinton. A 2018 inspector general report alleged that McCabe violated the agency’s media policy and then repeatedly misled other FBI agents about his decision.
McCabe’s lawyers denied that he intentionally lied to investigators, according to the Times, and a key witness testified that he had no motive to lie because he was authorized to speak to the media in the first place.
“We said at the outset of the criminal investigation, almost two years ago, that if the facts and the law determined the result, no charges would be brought,” the prosecutors said in a statement. “We are pleased that Andrew McCabe and his family can go on with their lives without this cloud hanging over them.”
The decision came days after senior Justice Department officials intervened in the case of Roger Stone, President Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser, to recommend a more lenient sentence than the prosecutors assigned to the case had suggested. That move sparked concern that the department was caving to pressure by Trump, who had criticized the initial sentencing recommendation on Twitter.
McCabe stepped down from the deputy director role in January 2018 but remained on the FBI staff. He was fired in March 2018, a day before he would have been eligible to receive a pension, after which he sued the FBI and the Justice Department for documents related to his dismissal.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the former deputy director. He tweeted about McCabe’s retirement benefits in December 2017, writing that McCabe was “racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!”
McCabe took aim at the president in a Friday interview on CNN.
“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,” he said.
As a Duke alum, McCabe has been present in campus life, most recently speaking at an event in April 2019.
“Norms have been shattered one after another, in ways that I think are deeply damaging to our democracy,” he said at the event. “The thing that troubles me the most is that… this president doesn’t either understand or respect our democracy in the way that we understand it. To considerably hold himself above the law cuts against the absolute tenet of our society.”
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Maria Morrison was a digital strategy director for The Chronicle's 117th volume. She was previously managing editor for Volume 116.