Andrew McCabe’s Actions at FBI Are What Got Him Fired, DOJ Says

(Bloomberg) -- Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has only himself to blame for his ouster from the agency, Justice Department lawyers said in a U.S. court filing asking a judge to throw out McCabe's wrongful-termination lawsuit.

“In the FBI, a lofty position does not lessen the need to abide by the ideals memorialized in its motto” of fidelity, bravery, integrity, the government's lawyers said in papers filed Friday in a federal court in Washington. “Mr. McCabe's actions here fell short of that bar.”

McCabe, the No. 2 man at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was fired on the eve of his eligibility for retirement with full benefits in March 2018. Weeks earlier, a Justice Department inspector general found he'd not been completely honest about his role in providing information to a Wall Street Journal reporter about an FBI probe of the Clinton Foundation, the charitable organization run by former President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea.

“We concluded that McCabe lacked candor on four separate occasions in connection with the disclosure to the WSJ,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a report made public in April 2018. “Three of those occasions involved his testimony under oath.”

In its court filing, the DOJ said that “given standard FBI protocol, removal was the natural, and expected, result of such findings.”

McCabe's ouster was celebrated in a tweet by President Donald Trump who perceived him as an enemy and called him “a major sleazebag.” McCabe, who worked under the also-fired Director James Comey, filed suit in August. He claimed the firing was retaliatory and touted his 21 years of service to the bureau.

McCabe asked the court to deem him to have retired as an agent in good standing, fully eligible for his pension and health benefits.

The Justice Department's motion to dismiss comes two weeks before it is required to tell a Washington judge in a separate case whether it plans to charge McCabe with criminal wrongdoing.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records related to the McCabe affair. The DOJ has said it can't comply because the government may bring criminal charges. A spokeswoman for CREW, Jenna Grande, said in an email that prosecutors need to either charge McCabe or drop the investigation, or face a judicial order to release the documents.

The case is McCabe v. Barr, 19-cv-2399, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve Stroth

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