Lawmakers Recommend Clinton, Comey, Lynch, McCabe for Criminal Referrals

McCabe's fate rests with Trump-appointed prosecutor
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By Brooke Singman | Fox News
Video
Do McCabe's actions rise to level of criminal prosecution?

DOJ watchdog refers findings on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to prosecutors for possible charges; reaction from Democratic strategist Robin Biro and GOP financier Dan Palmer.

Fired FBI official Andrew McCabe’s fate rests in the hands of a Trump-appointed prosecutor, now that the Justice Department’s inspector general has sent a criminal referral over an investigative finding that he lied to James Comey and bureau investigators about a media disclosure.

That referral, sent by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, is now being considered by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jessie Liu. President Trump appointed Liu in July 2017.

“We were advised of the referral within the past few weeks,” McCabe’s counsel, Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, said in a statement. “Although we believe the referral is unjustified, the standard for an IG referral is very low. We have already met with staff members from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

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U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie Liu is a Trump appointee. (Reuters)

Bromwich added, “We are confident that, unless there is inappropriate pressure from high levels of the administration, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will conclude that it should decline to prosecute.”

DOJ WATCHDOG SENDS CRIMINAL REFERRAL FOR MCCABE TO FEDERAL PROSECUTOR

McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, is not alone in facing IG problems. It emerged Friday that even Comey is the subject of an IG review over his handling of classified information in memos he penned. But McCabe faces greater risk now that the findings of his case have been referred to the U.S. attorney.

Liu is a Republican and has a long history of political donations to GOP candidates, according to Open Secrets political donation records, but it does not appear that she donated to Trump.

Liu was criticized during her Senate confirmation hearing last year when it was revealed that she met with Trump at least once while being considered for the post — an unprecedented step in the process for potential U.S. attorney nominees.

But whether Liu will opt to prosecute McCabe is unclear. Referrals do not guarantee that charges will be brought, nor do they require prosecutors to act in any way.

Officials from the Justice Department, the inspector general’s office and the U.S. attorney’s office all declined to comment on the referral.

According to Federal Code 18 USC 1001, someone prosecuted for making false statements could face a fine and/or up to five years imprisonment.

Former high-ranking Justice Department official James Trusty, who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, told Fox News that prosecution was unlikely.


“It’s pretty unusual territory for a false-statement prosecution to be based on employment actions, like lying to your inspector general,” Trusty told Fox News. “It’s an unusual setting to have a false-statement prosecution because typically they’re associated with independent criminal probes. This is an employment probe.”

On the other hand, former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova, who last month was invited to join President Trump’s outside legal team but withdrew himself after a conflict of interest, said he thinks a prosecution is inevitable.

“This is a senior FBI official. He lied under oath to FBI and Justice Department officials at least three times,” diGenova told Fox News Friday.

The IG sent the referral Thursday after he found that McCabe leaked a self-serving story to the press and later lied about it to then-FBI Director Comey and federal investigators, prompting Attorney General Jeff Sessions to fire him just days before his pension was set to become effective.

The initial investigation into McCabe was ordered by Comey. While the former FBI chief may not have intentionally been after his deputy, he was looking for the source of a leak to The Wall Street Journal in an Oct. 30, 2016, story confirming a bureau investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

Horowitz found that McCabe lacked “candor” when questioned by FBI agents on multiple occasions, and that he wrongly told agents he did not authorize the disclosure and did not know who was responsible.

MCCABE 'UPSET AND DISAPPOINTED' OVER COMEY COMMENTS

Bromwich blasted the Horowitz report, and said that it failed to “adequately address the evidence.” He suggested that the inspector general's office should “credit Mr. McCabe’s account over Director Comey’s.”

Comey has maintained McCabe did not tell him about the leak.

Trusty, weighing the odds of prosecution, said that making false statements in the context of an “administrative interview” is “less sexy to prosecutors than a false statement during a criminal investigation.”

“But that said, it’s a crap shoot,” Trusty said.

"They are prosecuting Michael Flynn for doing the same thing," diGenova noted.

However, Mueller’s team, which is probing Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, is prosecuting former national security adviser Flynn after he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI as part of a criminal investigation — not an inspector general investigation.

“It is Liu’s job to take this up, and it’s got nothing to do with Trump,” diGenova said. “The Justice Department and the inspector general sent it to her, not because she’s a Trump appointee, but because she is the U.S. attorney.”

He added, “I think he will be prosecuted.”
 
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It is a criminal referral, not a writ of execution. DOJ has discretion to investigate and prosecute, and defendants will have the same right to jury trial that Mueller's prey do. Antithesis of mob justice.

In addition, the grand jury is there to make sure that there is at least some evidence to support going forward with the charge. Of course, you can indict anyone for anything with very little but the lefties are not worrying about it for Trumps people, so why should I worry about it for the FBI swamp. Not my problem.

McCabe needs to prepare for the worst, and I am 100% in favor of seeing him defend himself to the hilt. Not a problem. If the DOJ goes forward to prosecute him, most likely they will charge him with several counts. And it is quite possible that he is not guilty of a couple of the counts that he will be charged with, because the FBI and the IG are taking Rosensteins and Comeys word over his as to whether or not he is lying in a couple instances- but they are fucking liars themselves. If McCabe wants to go after them to defend himself, good. Sign me up for that too.

It is possible of course that the u.s. attorney will decide to not prosecute him, and in some ways that is fine too. It would fuel the fire for an independent counsel. The DOJ/FBI have to dish up some scalps now. There is no other way out. If they go light on McCabe, then Rosenstein and Comey are next in line to offer up the scalps. Strzok, Page, and Ohr are not enough.
 
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However, she did violate the Espionage Act, which has the purpose of making activities that facilitate espionage unlawful. Let's not forget that that whole back and forth about whether "extremely careless" is in any way different from "gross negligence" is an argument about the the language of the Espionage Act.

She clearly violated the Espionage Act. Lock her up.

No she did not.
 
Beautiful. Defendant Trump and others are entitled to do discovery and subpoena evidence and witnesses to defend themselves. Hope the DNC and Hillary and Wasserman and Podesta are up for that. Also, they will be asked to splain why they prevented the FBI from having access to their computers to look for digital fingerprints.

This goes both ways.
 
Indeed. And also brings that whole Awan scenario into play. Awan worked for Wasserman as her IT guy and had all of her passwords- including while she was DNC chair. So there is that. And then, the premise of their lawsuit is that Trump colluded with the Russians and then the Russians hacked the DNC but lots of people/countries probably did. Let us not forget that Podesta was Hillary's campaign chair and wikileaks picked up his emails from the russians who hacked his gmail account so there is another aspect of dem loose lips and lack of security contributing to their own problems. And then there is the question of whether the DNC hack was an inside job- a disgruntled Bernie supporter or something. The Clintonistas dismiss that outright but also do not have a good answer as to why the DNC definitely did not want the FBI to investigate their server.

Not sure that the rocket surgeons bringing this lawsuit have thought through whether they want to wake that sleeping dog again and have it all put under the microscope. I am definitely up for it though.

This is a great example of how you guys take something and blow it up beyond reason.

The above is all gibberish nonsense.
 
It is a criminal referral, not a writ of execution. DOJ has discretion to investigate and prosecute, and defendants will have the same right to jury trial that Mueller's prey do. Antithesis of mob justice.

Really? So democrats should start referring criminal charges on whoever they want if they don’t like the outcome of investigations, based on nonsense and garbage. Is this is how we should run justice in a republic?

I think not. Like I said, these guys are idiots.
 
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