McCabe's Lawyer: McCabe Repeatedly Told James Comey That He Was Leaking to the WSJ and Had His Approval, Despite Comey's Denials

One possible explanation that some might suggest that splits it down the middle (and maybe keeps both men from a perjury rap) is that McCabe told Comey that he was going to rebut the WSJ's previous article suggesting that McCabe and the FBI were slow-playing the Hillary investigation, but Comey did not know that McCabe was going to tell them (or rather have his "Special Counsel," almost certainly Lisa Page tell them) about the phone call from the Principle Acting Deputy Attorney General in which the "PADAG" tried to back McCabe off from investigating, but McCabe bravely soldiered forward.

(According to the perfectly truthful McCabe, that is.)

This sort of "one's half right, the other's half right" explanation might be enough to keep them both out of jail.

This attempt at a reconciliation between the two conspirators' stories has been floated before:

Another source familiar with the matter argued that the discrepancy between the two accounts is more about the fact that they are recalling the interaction differently than a dispute about what took place, saying both were acting in "good faith."

"They recall it differently," the source said. "Andy thinks in good faith he told him, and Comey in good faith says he wasn’t told."

The source added that “the notion that the two guys are pitted against each other is crazy."

That's from a John Sexton post, but the language is actually quoted from CNN, which is of course cozy with all the leakers and conspirators and trying to keep its sources playing nice with each other.

And trying to keep them out of jail.

And trying to keep themselves from having to testify in any prosecutions about who leaked what to whom.

And trying to keep the public from learning their own central role in the campaign of illegal leaks against Trump, acting as the AV Squad All-Stars for the Deep State High School.

Buuuuuuut...

For one thing, the OIG report's language is pretty firm on the point that McCabe did not just lie once, but four times, and wasn't just hazy on details of what his Trained Parrot (probably Special Counsel Lisa Page) was leaking to the WSJ on his orders, but claimed that he had no idea who was talking to the WSJ at all.

As detailed below, we found that in late October 2016, McCabe authorized Special Counsel and AD/OPA to discuss with [reporter Devlin] Barrett issues related to the FBI's Clinton Foundation investigation (CF Investigation)…The disclosure to the WSJ effectively confirmed the existence of the CF Investigation, which then-FBI Director Comey had previously refused to do.

We found that, in a conversation with then-Director Comey shortly after the WSJ article was published, McCabe lacked candor when he told Comey, or made statements that led Comey to believe, that McCabe had not authorized the disclosure and did not know who did. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.5 (Lack of Candor -- No Oath).

We also found that on May 9, 2017, when questioned under oath by FBI agents from INSD, McCabe lacked candor when he told the agents that he had not authorized the disclosure to the WSJ and did not know who did. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.6 (Lack of Candor -- Under Oath).

We further found that on July 28, 2017, when questioned under oath by the OIG in a recorded interview, McCabe lacked candor when he stated: (a) that he was not aware of Special Counsel having been authorized to speak to reporters around October 30 and (b) that, because he was not in Washington, D.C., on October 27 and 28, 2016, he was unable to say where Special Counsel was or what she was doing at that time. This conduct violated FBI Offense Code 2.6 (Lack of Candor -- Under Oath).

Note that one of those incidences of "lack of candor" was about lying to Comey, which could be explained away by claiming Comey is either lying or mistaken. But the next two raps for "lack of candor" involve McCabe claiming he didn't know his Special Counsel was talking with the Wall Street Journal -- and Comey isn't anywhere involved there.

Whether or not McCabe had Comey's approval, as McCabe's lawyer alleges, to make these disclosures to the WSJ does not change the fact that when asked if he knew who was leaking he lied to investigators about it.

Even if he's claiming that he was telling the truth (sort of) that he didn't know who made a specific disclosure, he knew damn well he had authorized his Special Counsel to make some disclosures to the WSJ, and was lying when he claimed he didn't know what she was doing on specific days (when he knew full well she was communicating with the WSJ -- on his orders, or at least at his urging, let's say).

Now that these two old clucking hens are squabbling at each other, this is even more amusing. Click on each of the two partial, chopped-off images to see them in full:

BTW, I found this when searching Sexton's older posts, which I hadn't seen before -- Max Boot whining that sure, maybe some laws were broken here and there, but Trump!!!

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:11 PM

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