Reports: Inspector General Michael Horowitz Will Accuse Andrew McCabe of Leaking, Misleading Investigators

Department of Justice Inspector General (DOJ-IG) Michael Horowitz’s long-awaited report will accuse outgoing FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe of improper leaking to the press and deliberately misleading DOJ-IG investigators, according to Thursday reporting in the New York Times and Washington Post.

The New York Times broke McCabe’s alleged leaking to the media first. According to their “four people familiar with the inquiry,” Horowitz’s report will accuse McCabe of authorizing the leaks that led to an October 2016 piece in the Wall Street Journal that revealed on ongoing dispute about how to handle the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails that had just been reopened by the discoveries on disgraced Congressman Anthony Wiener’s laptop. Among other things, the WSJ article reveals that senior Obama Justice Department officials were pressuring McCabe to discontinue their investigation.

“The inspector general has concluded that Mr. McCabe authorized F.B.I. officials to provide information for that article,” the Times sources claim.

The Times characterizes McCabe’s leak, which apparently took the form of authorizing a phone call to the press in violation of DOJ policy, as one harmful to Clinton rather than Donald Trump. However, as the Times notes, the WSJ piece also reported that some FBI agents in the field wanted to pursue a “more aggressive approach” than McCabe was willing to allow.

“Such calls are common practice across the federal government when officials believe that journalists have only part of the story. Rather than let incomplete or inaccurate coverage circulate, officials often try to fill out the picture or provide a defense,” the Times writes, but no indication is made which information leaked from McCabe’s alleged improper authorization.

This was followed late Thursday night by a potentially more momentous Washington Postreport claiming McCabe would also face accusations he tried to throw off Horowitz’s investigators and may have conducted his leak through Lisa Page, the leftist FBI lawyer and Trump critic allegedly having an extramarital affair with FBI agent Peter Strzok and together with Strzok considered the Russia investigation an “insurance policy” against...Read More HERE