Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. | Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images legal Obama’s team lines up to defend Andrew McCabe in court Obama-era national security leaders would testify on behalf of McCabe should he face trial over allegations that he misled officials about leaks to the media.

A cavalcade of Obama-era national security leaders have committed to testify on behalf of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should he face trial over allegations that he misled officials about leaks to the media.

The lineup, detailed in a legal analysis from McCabe's legal team, the substance of which was provided to the Justice Department, includes a string of former senior officials. McCabe’s ex-boss, however — former FBI Director James Comey — has said he could be a witness against him, based on testimony Comey gave to an internal watchdog that appeared to contradict McCabe’s version of events.


McCabe was fired in 2018 after the Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the FBI’s No. 2 had exhibited a “lack of candor” during its probe into disclosures to the media about the bureau’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation. McCabe has argued that he did not intend to mislead investigators and argued in a lawsuit filed in August that his ouster was politically motivated retaliation — directed by President Donald Trump — meant to punish him for his role in the probe of the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

Still, prosecutors have recommended that McCabe face indictment over his actions during the IG probe.

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If McCabe ultimately does face charges, he’ll have the backing of several top national officials who have now left government, including Mary McCord, a career DOJ attorney who oversaw the government’s Russia probe as acting head of the DOJ’s National Security Division, and David Cohen, the No. 2 at the CIA from 2015 to 2017.

Lisa Monaco, an Obama-era homeland security adviser, and Denis McDonough, a former Obama chief of staff, also agreed to testify.

McCabe's lawyers said the testimony of these witnesses won't be limited "solely to character evidence" — they'll also serve "as fact witnesses, to testify about the many critical and highly sensitive national security and law enforcement they worked on with Mr. McCabe."

Another list indicating other Obama-era officials had also agreed to testify was provided in error.

"The legal analysis provided to Politico last week indicated that Mr. McCabe has obtained commitments from more than a dozen former high-ranking government officials who worked closely with Mr. McCabe on law enforcement and national security matters to testify as character witnesses on Mr. McCabe’s behalf," said a spokesman for McCabe. "An errant version included some individuals who have not committed to serve as character witnesses at trial. We requested that Politico remove those names."

McCabe's legal team previously asked DOJ to overrule the prosecutors’ indictment recommendation, but were rebuffed, according to a person familiar with the matter. The lawyers wrote an 11-page legal analysis, entitled “Reasons Not To Prosecute Andrew McCabe,” as part of their effort to convince DOJ not to bring charges.

It’s still unclear, however, whether the grand jury convened in McCabe’s case has actually returned an indictment. McCabe’s lawyer Michael Bromwich sent a letter last Thursday to U.S. Attorney Jesse Liu — whose Washington, D.C., office has been handling the case — asking about “rumors” that the jurors had declined to prosecute McCabe over the alleged media leak.

Bromwich argued that if that were the case, “the justice manual compels you not to resubmit the case to the same or a different grand jury.”

It’s also still unclear what specific charges prosecutors have recommended be brought against McCabe.

McCabe — who launched a counterintelligence investigation into Trump after he fired Comey in 2017 — said in an interview earlier this year that he believed his firing was “a perfect way to undermine my ability to, who knows, provide testimony against” the president. He also insisted that he “never, ever intentionally misled the FBI inspection division, the office of the inspector general, or any director of the FBI, ever.”

CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to reflect additional information from McCabe's legal team about the list of character witnesses.