WASHINGTON — James Comey’s former No. 2 on the FBI rigorously claimed that he was “not conscious” of his previous boss authorizing leaks which might be central to the indictment handed down towards Comey final week.
Andrew McCabe, who served because the FBI deputy director from 2016 to 2018 and has a historical past of not being forthcoming with the reality, additionally insisted the proof within the indictment is “removed from clear sufficient” to assist prosecution of Comey for making false statements to Congress.
“All I can say to Jake is I’m not conscious of Jim Comey ever authorizing another particular person to leak info,” McCabe instructed CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“That’s not one thing I skilled personally. It’s not one thing I noticed in on a regular basis I spent working round Jim Comey,” he mentioned.
“So I can’t sit right here and characterize his testimony, which I feel is much from clear sufficient to be the premise of a false assertion or perjury prosecution.”
Final week, Comey was indicted on one depend of making a false assertion to Congress and one depend of obstructing a congressional continuing.
The indictment references feedback Comey made to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30, 2020, during which he denied authorizing “another person on the F.B.I. to be an nameless supply in information experiences” about an unnamed particular person.
It isn’t totally clear whether or not that unnamed particular person was President Trump or Hillary Clinton, because the FBI’s separate investigations revolving across the two got here up in questioning.
Again in 2019, federal prosecutors really useful indicting McCabe for his actions surrounding a leak throughout his time as deputy FBI director, however a grand jury didn’t return that indictment.
A 2018 Justice Division inspector normal’s report discovered that McCabe improperly approved a leak a couple of federal probe revolving across the Clinton Basis within the homestretch of the 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
The watchdog discovered that “McCabe lacked candor on 4 separate events” when questioned beneath oath about that leak.
“I by no means requested Jim Comey to authorize any disclosure to the media as a result of I didn’t need to. At the moment within the FBI, there’s [sic] solely two individuals who had the authority to make that call independently. One was Jim Comey, and the opposite was me,” McCabe instructed CNN Sunday..
“And it was one thing I did as part of my job fairly routinely, so round that trade in October … that request by no means occurred,” he added.
Whereas the indictment doesn’t absolutely clarify who the middleman could have been if Comey approved a leak, observers have speculated that prosecutors are zeroing in on his pal Daniel Richman, a professor who is thought to have leaked for the previous FBI director up to now.
It isn’t publicly identified if Richman was the supply of the leak on the coronary heart of the indictment towards Comey.
McCabe additionally criticized the Justice Division for not contacting him amid the frenzy to prosecute Comey days earlier than the statute of limitations ran out.
“I’ve not been contacted. I haven’t been interviewed,” he mentioned. “Didn’t ask to interview me, and naturally, given my interactions with Jim Comey 9 years in the past, in October 2016, was going to be the premise of this whole prosecution, it’s unbelievable to assume that prosecutors wouldn’t at the very least wish to sit down and listen to what I needed to say about it.”
Nonetheless, McCabe is nervous that he may face authorized scrutiny from the Trump administration.
“After all, who wouldn’t be,” McCabe replied when requested if he had issues about dealing with a renewed probe.
“Anybody who labored within the FBI round these instances at the moment has acquired to significantly think about that you just may as soon as once more [be targeted].”
“I’m not nervous; I’m simply form of exhausted.”
Comey has maintained his innocence and is slated to look for an Oct. 9 arraignment. His indictment got here days after Trump publicly bashed Lawyer Common Pam Bondi for not rapidly bringing fees towards Comey and different political foes.
