Andrew McCabe was fired hours before he would’ve collected a multi-million pension from FBI, where he served as deputy director. It was abundantly clear that Mr. McCabe had to go—and this wasn’t from the Trump White House. Sure, President Trump made McCabe to be a boogeyman, but the smoking gun was not in the Oval Office, it was the FBI’s own Office of Professional Responsibility, which recommended McCabe get the axe. The reason: lying to investigators and an unauthorized media disclosure to The Wall Street Journal about the tension between the FBI and DOJ over the Clinton Foundation probe. Oh, and it wasn’t just one time. As Guy wrote yesterday, citing the Washington Post, OPR cited McCabe with four times to lying to investigator, including former FBI Director James Comey.

“McCabe lied to his superiors and investigators four times: to Comey in October 2016; to FBI investigators in May 2017; and to the Office of the Inspector General twice, beginning in the summer.”

Oh yeah, this guy is getting railroaded, except that he’s not. And it doesn’t seem that stretching the truth falls far from the tree. His wife, Jill, a doctor, penned an op-ed in The Post about her failed 2015 Virginia Senate run and how there was no conflict of interest. There have been allegations that McCabe’s donations from pro-Clinton Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s PAC during that run, which exceeded $400,000, was a sort of down payment for political protection since soon after her campaign ended, Mr. McCabe became deputy director, where one of his tasks was to oversee the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email fiasco (via Fox News):

McCabe’s wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, ran for a Virginia State Senate seat in 2015. The political action committee for then-Virginia Governor McAuliffe, a Democrat and Clinton ally, donated $467,500 to her campaign, while the Virginia Democratic party gave $207,788, The Journal reported. Andrew McCabe was associate deputy director of the FBI at the time. McCabe “played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind,” the FBI told The Journal in a statement. “Months after the completion of her campaign, then-Associate Deputy Director McCabe was promoted to Deputy, where, in that position, he assumed for the first time, an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails.”

Dr. McCabe said she ran because she wanted to make people’s lives better, that her work in health care encouraged her that she could do some good in Richmond (McAuliffe was pushing Medicaid expansion), and how if this campaign made her husband’s work more difficult at the FBI, even if it was allowed, she wouldn’t do it. McCabe spoke with ethics lawyer to find out how to make this work, and this is where the trouble begins (via WaPo) [emphasis mine]:

Still, in thinking about running, one of my first concerns was Andrew and his job at the FBI, where he was the assistant director in charge of the Washington field office. I said to Andrew, “If you think this is going to be a problem for you professionally, even if it’s allowed, I won’t do it.” He consulted with the ethics experts at the FBI and committed to follow their advice. We tried to go even beyond what the rules required — Andrew kept himself separate from my campaign. When the kids and I went door-knocking, he did not participate; he wouldn’t even drive us. He could have attended one of my fundraisers but never did. One day he put on a campaign T-shirt so we could take a family picture and share it with my proud parents. You may have seen it — it seems to have taken on a weird life of its own — but that was it, just a family picture at a swim meet. […] Then the president started tweeting about how the contributions to my campaign made it clear that Andrew (and all the senior leadership at the FBI) were corrupt and that he should be removed. It went one step further in the days before Christmas, when the president made threats related to my husband’s retirement. To have my personal reputation and integrity and those of my family attacked this way is beyond horrible. It feels awful every day. It keeps me up nights. I made the decision to run for office because I was trying to help people. Instead, it turned into something that was used to attack our family, my husband’s career and the entire FBI.

Okay, well, your husband used his FBI email to push your campaign. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, documented it in a December 1, 2017 letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein [emphasis mine]

Dear Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein: E-mail communications recently released by the FBI in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that Deputy Director Andrew McCabe may have violated the Hatch Act and corresponding Department regulations prohibiting political activity during his wife’s 2015 campaign for the Virginia Senate. According to guidance from the DOJ’s Departmental Ethics Office, under 5 C.F.R. § 734.101-702, FBI employees are forbidden from “engag[ing] in political activity while on duty, in a federal facility, wearing a uniform or official insignia, or using a federally-owned or leased vehicle...”1 The guidance also states that “further restricted” employees such as those at the FBI […] However, the e-mail communications released by the FBI show that Mr. McCabe did precisely that during his wife’s Virginia Senate campaign. For instance, in an August 19, 2015, e-mail from his FBI e-mail account to an undisclosed recipient, he wrote: “Jill has been busy as hell since she decided to run for VA state senate (long story). Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate.”3 In a November 1, 2015, e-mail from his same FBI email account to an FBI employee, Mr. McCabe wrote: “I am so proud of her. She will do a great job for VA if she gets elected.”

Yeah, that doesn’t sound like separation or going “beyond what the rules required.” I’m sure all of these questions will be asked and answered when McCabe is brought before Congress for more testimony. Mr. McCabe is also likely to file suit over his dismissal from the FBI. These things will take money, and he’s been flooded with over $500,000 for his legal fund.

Will Trump/Russia be included in the debate as to why McCabe was fired, and that of the overall tension the FBI has with the Trump White House? Most definitely—but the OPR report is quite clear that McCabe was fired because he leaked sensitive information, like Comey, and lied about it multiple times. The fact that both men leaked information adds to the sad state of affairs the FBI has found itself, but it seems McCabe’s own actions were the reason for his rightful dismissal. Moreover, he obviously had selective hearing concerning building those walls of separation regarding his wife’s campaign. He’s not being scapegoated. The Obama-appointed IG isn’t singling him out either. He lied. And now he’s paying the price, though many are viewing him as some political martyr. He isn’t nay of those things. And this glaring falsehood in his wife’s op-ed, only adds that this family is taking a page out of the Clinton political playbook concerning scandal.

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UPDATE: Judicial Watch has more: