WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are examining whether they have sufficient evidence to open a criminal investigation into Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director, his lawyer said on Thursday, after a Justice Department inspector general report repeatedly faulted him for misleading investigators.

The inquiry is certain to add to an already corrosive atmosphere pitting Mr. McCabe and other current and former law enforcement officials against President Trump. The president has accused them of concocting a baseless investigation into possible links between his associates and Russia’s election interference.

The inspector general referred his findings on Mr. McCabe to prosecutors in the United States attorney’s office for the District of Columbia in recent weeks, according to Mr. McCabe’s lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich, who called the step unjustified and stressed that the White House should not interfere in an independent law enforcement investigation.

“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,” Mr. Bromwich said. Representatives for the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, and the United States attorney’s office declined to comment.