Federal prosecutors in Washington have impaneled a grand jury to investigate accusations that former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe misled officials over his role in unauthorized disclosures to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post reported.

The Post, citing two people familiar with the matter, said the grand jury has summoned more than one witness.

As WND reported, McCabe has been accused of leaking the information in defense of claims that he ordered bureau investigators to "stand down" in their probe of the Clinton Foundation.

In April, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz accused McCabe of lying under oath to government officials regarding his disclosures to reporters.

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McCabe was fired March 16 by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, hours before he was to retire with a pension.

After release of the Horowitz report, the inspector general sent a criminal referral for McCabe to the U.S. Attorney's office regarding the FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

In addition, FBI sources and a congressional official have claimed McCabe gave a "stand-down" order regarding the opening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state through which she transmitted classified information.

The order was made shortly after the New York Times broke the news in March 2015 that Clinton used a personal email account to conduct State Department business, the sources told investigative reporter Sara Carter. The FBI Washington Field Office began probing the matter while McCabe was overseas. When he learned of the investigation, he expressed his displeasure with the agents, the sources said.

"McCabe tried to steer people off the private email investigation and that appears to be obstruction and should be investigated," a former FBI official with knowledge of the investigation told Carter.

The source said that if the information on the stand-down order is obtained by the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, "that could bring a whole lot of other troubles to McCabe."

McCabe also has been accused of creating a conflict of interest when the FBI investigated the Clinton email scandal while his wife received some $600,000 in political campaign donations from Clinton's friends.

Eleven lawmakers, led by Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., have asked for an investigation of McCabe's testimony regarding the Wall Street Journal leak.

Shutting down investigation

The IG report concluded McCabe's disclosure about the Clinton Foundation review "violated the FBI's and the Department's media policy and constituted misconduct."

In late October 2016, Horowitz found, McCabe authorized the disclosure to a reporter of an Aug. 23, 2016, telephone call between him and the then-principal associate deputy attorney general "to rebut a narrative that had been developing" following a Wall Street Journal story "that questioned McCabe's impartiality in overseeing FBI investigations" into Clinton's email server.

Horowitz concluded McCabe ordered the termination of the Clinton Foundation investigation due to Department of Justice pressure.

A lawyer for McCabe, Michael Bromwich, has claimed that former FBI Director James Comey did not tell the truth about the Wall Street Journal leaks in his interviews earlier this year regarding his new book.

Comey claimed he had asked the IG to look into the leaks, but Bromwich, said in a statement, "Neither Mr. Comey nor the OIG is infallible, and in this case neither of them has it right."