Report: McCabe Told FBI Agents to Stand Down on Clinton Email Investigation
Investigative journalist Sara Carter is reporting, based on multiple sources, that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe gave a stand down order regarding opening an investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server.
McCabe’s order allegedly came after the New York Times first broke the story in March 2015 of Clinton’s use of an unauthorized, unsecured private server for her State Department emails, in apparent violation of the agency’s rules for employees.
At first, Clinton emphatically claimed there was no classified information on the server. Then, she changed her story, saying there was no information marked classified at the time it was sent. The FBI found all these claims to be false, as classified information was found on the server, including that categorized as top-secret.
“Multiple former FBI officials, along with a Congressional official,” Carter writes, “say that while there may have been internal squabbling over the FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation at the time, there was allegedly another ‘stand-down’ order by McCabe regarding the opening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email for official government business.”
“McCabe tried to steer people off the private email investigation and that appears to be obstruction and should be investigated,” said one former FBI official with knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the investigation.
“Now if the information on the ‘stand-down’ order is obtained by the IG that could bring a whole lot of other troubles to McCabe.”
Did McCabe issue ‘Stand-Down’ order on FBI Clinton Email Investigation? via @SaraCarterDC https://t.co/rjJhKztNab
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) April 24, 2018
A report released by the Justice Department’s inspector general Michael Horowitz determined that McCabe lied multiple times to investigators regarding leaks he made to the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2016 in an attempt to protect his reputation.
The Journal’s Devlin Barrett wrote of a possible “stand down” order given by McCabe in relation to an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The Washington Post reported last week that Horowitz has referred the former deputy director to the Justice Department for criminal charges.
That same week multiple Republican congressional members made criminal referrals for McCabe, as well as Clinton, former FBI Director Jim Comey, FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page.
In addition to the OIG’s report, the lawmakers pointed to McCabe’s involvement in the use of the unsubstantiated Russia dossier to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil a Trump campaign adviser.
Many in the media have noted McCabe’s potential conflict of interest with regard to an investigation into Clinton, given the financial backing his wife received from close Clinton friend Virginia Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe during her state senate bid in 2015.
His political super PAC contributed $700,000 to the candidate.
McCabe’s impartiality was also brought into question in a text conversation between Strzok and Page in August 2016, with the Andy mentioned believed to be a reference to their boss, the former FBI deputy director.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office – that there’s no way (Trump) gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok texted to Page. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
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