U.S. prosecutors won’t be charging former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe over allegations that he lied about leaking confidential information to the media.
Federal prosecutors told McCabe’s legal team in a letter on Friday of their decision “not to pursue criminal charges against your client,” the Associated Press reported.
“Based on the totality of the circumstances and all of the information known to the government at this time, we consider the matter closed,” the letter said.
McCabe told CNN that it was an “absolute disgrace” that the DOJ took two years to come to what he described as an “obvious conclusion.”
“To have this horrific black cloud that’s been hanging over me and my family for almost the last two years, to have that finally lifted is just an unbelievable — it’s a relief I’m not sure I can really explain to you adequately,” McCabe said.
The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office stemmed from a Wall Street Journal story in October 2016 that detailed internal discussions about the Clinton Foundation investigation.
McCabe had denied speaking to the WSJ reporter, and said no one at the FBI was authorized to speak with the reporter. He claimed he wasn’t aware of how the information was leaked, though the story claimed McCabe had, in fact, spoken to the reporter.
A referral from the Justice Department’s Inspector General said that McCabe lied about authorizing an FBI employee to speak to the WSJ reporter.
McCabe was fired by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 16, 2018, after 22 years at the FBI. He had served as Deputy Director since February 2016.
McCabe had announced his resignation in January 2018, intending to invoke his retirement benefits in March, but was fired just two days before his retirement was to go into effect.
He denied the accusations of media leaks and instead asserted that his firing was motivated by politics.
Last year, McCabe filed a civil lawsuit against the FBI and DOJ, alleging wrongful termination.
McCabe had claimed he faced “unlawful retaliation for his refusal to pledge allegiance to a single man,” an apparent reference to President Trump.
McCabe made headlines in February 2018 when he said DOJ officials were outraged by Trump’s decision to terminate then-FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, so much so that they considered directing members of Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment that would lead to the President’s removal.
