Sara A. Carter ormer FBI Director Andrew McCabe – whose Crossfire Hurricane team illegally surveilled former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page – said the Department of Justice is withholding evidence related to his lawsuit, according to a late filing submitted to the court Monday night.
The filing, signed by McCabe’s attorney Murad Hussain, stated that “to date plaintiff has had no opportunity to take discovery…Plaintiff has not and cannot learn of all the relevant facts and present them in an admissible form without discovery.”
McCabe was ousted by the Department of Justice for lack of candor in March, 2018. McCabe was caught repeatedly lying to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s team and leaking information to the media. Then Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that “McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
“The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability,” Sessions stated in his March, 2018, statement. He was fired just two days before he was set to retire and recover his pension.
Moreover, McCabe has had several criminal referrals filed against him with the Justice Department. One was issued by Horowitz and another by 11 members of Congress in April, 2018, for his role in the bureau’s probe into Trump’s then campaign and the now debunked theory that there was collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.
Horowitz’s most recent report on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and its findings that Page, a short term campaign volunteer for Trump, was improperly surveilled with the use of a FISA warrant is sure to have repercussions on McCabe and his lawsuit. It should.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer rebuked the FBI in a damning letter last week
Collyer’s order referred to FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith, whose name was redacted from her order. She criticized the government for failing to provide all the information requested by the court. Horowitz named Clinesmith in his shocking report released earlier this month on the significant abuses discovered by his team regarding the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe into the Trump campaign.
Collyer also asked the FBI to advise the court if Clinesmith’s conduct “has been referred to the appropriate bar association(s) for investigation or possible disciplinary action.”
However, McCabe’s attorney Hussain doesn’t address any of the new evidence against his client and the FBI. Instead, he claims in a declaration Tuesday that multiple agencies, along with 30 individuals have yet to hand over materials requested by McCabe’s lawsuit.
Hussein said McCabe is still waiting for documents from FBI Director Chris Wray, Attorney General William Barr and President Trump. He attempts to argue that it was President Trump who requested the FBI’s loyalty from him and that he was fired unjustly. After all the evidence presented in Horowitz’s report, one would think that McCabe would be ashamed or not talk at all.
Instead, McCabe is arguing for supposed documents that will have no relevance to what he is going to face when Attorney General William Barr and prosecutor John Durham reveal what they have discovered in the expansive criminal probe.
McCabe should know better. He was the second in command at the bureau during the investigation into the Trump campaign, which he was deeply involved in. He knows the buck stops at his desk, as well as that of former FBI Director James Comey.
McCabe’s attorney, Hussein, argued in Monday’s late night filing that “at this time, Plaintiff has assembled a small set of supporting evidence from his own records and from publicly available sources. However, much of the relevant evidence in this case is in Defendants’ exclusive possession or the possession of current or former government officials.”
It’s a Hail Mary attempt at avoiding what is coming. Barr, along with Connecticut Durham, have an expansive criminal probe into the origination of the FBI’s probe into Trump’s presidential campaign that will reveal, I believe, how far some senior Obama administration officials went to attempt to stop Trump from taking office.
Not only will McCabe be wrapped up in this criminal probe but everyone that was involved in illegally spying on an American citizen. These officials had no regard for the Constitution’s 4th Amendment guarantees against ‘unreasonable searches and seizures.’
They had no regard for the American people.
Based on the evidence it’s Carter Page that needs to require McCabe, the FBI and all those associated with his investigation to turn over every iota of documentation associated with his case. I believe that should include all of McCabe’s text messages and emails.
After all, it was McCabe and Comey who breached the trust of the bureau with the American people. The former officials, along with their cohorts at the FBI and DOJ, are now at the center of one of the biggest modern political scandals in American history. And instead of apologizing for their actions and admitting wrongdoing they are doubling down.
They’re going down. No fancy pants prison and no less then 20yrs, imprisoned. No good behavior, no early release for any reason. Need to change the slap on the wrists for these high crimes and misdemeanor crew! Let them All Rot!