Because Comey told Congress that he had never leaked and was aware of no leaks.
Following his termination late Friday night, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe declared that he was “singled out” after “unrelenting” attacks by President Trump and critics. McCabe’s objections are less than credible, given the virtually unprecedented recommendation of career officials to fire the one-time acting FBI director.
However, McCabe may have rectified his “singled out” status with his long statement criticizing his termination: In the middle of it is a line that could be viewed as incriminating fired FBI director James Comey, not just in leaking sensitive information but also in lying to Congress.
McCabe is accused of misleading investigators about allegedly giving information to a former Wall Street Journal reporter about the investigation of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton family’s charitable foundation. McCabe asserts in his post-firing statement that he not only had authority to “share” that information to the media but did so with the knowledge of “the director.” The FBI director at the time was Comey.
“I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor,” McCabe stated. “As deputy director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter.”
If the “interaction” means leaking the information, then McCabe’s statement would seem to directly contradict statements Comey made in a May 2017 congressional hearing. Asked if he had “ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation” or whether he had “ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation,” Comey replied “never” and “no.”
Howard Kurtz may have already reported on the leak that sunk McCabe, as Mollie Hemingway wrote about in January.
The FBI’s top brass initiated conversations with a White House official that were quickly leaked to CNN, according to a new book.
Two news outlets had reported yet another “bombshell” Russia story that was bullshit. McCabe contacted the White House to tell them that the story being reported was, in the view of the FBI, untrue.
So McCabe called the White House to tell them that.
Reince Priebus asked McCabe if he would mind telling the press that as well, because the cable “news” stations were blathering about it as if it was the Next Huge Story (after yesterday’s Next Huge Story, of course).
What happened next will amaze you: Someone very familiar with the thoughts and feelings of Andrew McCabe called the press to tell them that Reince Priebus was pressuring senior FBI officials to knock down a media story.
From Kurtz’s book:
Now, a week later, CNN was airing a breaking news story naming Priebus. According to ‘multiple U.S. officials,’ the network said, ‘the FBI rejected a White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to U.S. intelligence.’Priebus was stunned by the implication that he was pressuring law enforcement. Had he been set up? Why was the FBI leaking this information when one of its top officials had initiated the conversation?
Incidentally, this incident did in fact involve Comey, because Priebus also asked Comey to tell the press what the FBI’s assessment of the story was (that it was untrue). Comey said he’d think about it and might testify to that effect at an upcoming congressional hearing.
I know there are a lot of people on the left who know EXACTLY what has been going on with the DOJ and FBI, but a there are a LOT of people that are going to feel REALLY stupid when the facts of all this come forth. Many conclusions can already be drawn based on the evidence already revealed (as opposed to the “Russian collusion” accusations, for which there is NO supporting evidence) and there is really no logical excuse for not at least harboring serious doubt about the left wing claims in these cases, but some people are about to feel REALLY, REALLY stupid.
As they should.
@Deplorable Me: No, they will remain stupid because they can never feel stupid.
@Randy: I know there are many who are too stupid to know how stupid they are, but in the end, even Nazis finally realized they had been lied to on a grand scale.