Andrew McCabe's camp isn't wavering from its response to an explosive Department of Justice inspector general's report that has prompted a criminal referral against him. | Pete Marovich/Getty Images McCabe's lawyers try to knock down idea of feud with Comey

As President Donald Trump stokes tension between the FBI's former No. 1 and No. 2, the counsel for fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Friday sought to tamp down any hint of a rift with ex-bureau director James Comey.

But McCabe's camp isn't wavering from its response to an explosive Department of Justice inspector general's report that has prompted a criminal referral against him for allegedly lying under oath — a response that rests in part on claims that Comey's memory of the underlying incidents is shaky.


McCabe counsel Michael Bromwich said Friday that the DOJ and FBI this week barred him from sharing previously unreleased interview transcripts, including some from Comey, that help make that case.

Bromwich told reporters that he has assembled an 11-page rebuttal to the inspector general's report "that goes through every allegation and rebuts it, and we have not been allowed to share that with you."

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The report by the DOJ's independent internal watchdog alleges that McCabe misled investigators as well as Comey about his role in media disclosures about investigations touching on Hillary Clinton in the days before the 2016 election. Comey has publicly aligned with the findings of the IG report during media appearances to promote his new book, telling CNN that "I like [McCabe] very much as a person, but sometimes even good people do things they shouldn't do."

Trump, who has long harshly targeted both Comey and McCabe, cheered the appearance of a schism between the two men on Thursday, tweeting that Comey "just threw Andrew McCabe 'under the bus'" and that the IG report "is a disaster for both of them!" McCabe's counsel, however, underscored his lack of interest in stoking any such conflict.

"Andy McCabe looked up to Jim Comey," Bromwich said Friday. "We are not for a moment suggesting that Jim Comey is making things up or lying about Andrew McCabe — nothing could be further from truth — but nobody’s memory is perfect."

The DOJ and FBI's decision to prohibit McCabe's legal team from sharing transcripts of witness interviews regarding the circumstances behind the IG report stems from a non-disclosure agreement that limits release of FBI-derived materials, according to Bromwich. The FBI's press office referred a question on the scope of any nondisclosure pact to the inspector general's office, which did not return a request for comment by press time.

Bromwich, himself a former DOJ IG, released an email he sent to Scott Schools, the top-ranked career official at DOJ who advised Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the ultimate recommendation to fire McCabe. The email, sent hours before McCabe's firing on March 16 with less than two days to go before his scheduled retirement, asserts that any finding of untruthfulness stems from "misunderstanding, miscommunication, and honest failures of recollection based on the swirl of events around him."

McCabe "had no motive to lie or mislead about media contacts he had the authority to direct," Bromwich wrote, adding that "several of the charges rest on the flawed and equivocal testimony of former Director Comey."

Bromwich also announced Friday that McCabe has formally created a legal defense fund to help defray the costs of multiple congressional inquiries into the IG report and other FBI-related matters, as well as the outcome of the criminal referral made by the IG's office and potential civil claims McCabe might bring related to his firing.

Working with the firm Boies Schiller, Bromwich said, the McCabe legal team is evaluating the potential for wrongful termination and defamation cases as well as "various kinds of constitutional due process claims." The 50-year-old former FBI deputy director shut down an online fundraising page to help support his legal efforts earlier this month after donors sent in more than $530,000, far exceeding the effort's initial goals.