FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe need not give his critics any more reason to question his scruples, but it appears that he has done just that. McCabe was #2 in charge during much of the maligned Comey-era of the FBI, and new FBI director Christopher Wray chose to keep McCabe on as deputy when he took office, to many people’s shock and dismay. If an inextricable link to the most recent FBI leadership web was not enough to cast doubt upon McCabe’s political neutrality, his decision to delay testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee will further diminish his stature.
McCabe was thought to be a longshot for a position within the Christopher Wray bureau, which would oversee an internal investigation into the Bureau’s own practices. This investigation was warranted because of the shady dealings of prior leadership, which saw McCabe as #2 in charge and then acting head of the bureau after Jim Comey’s firing in May. McCabe oversaw the intentionally bungled Clinton email investigation after his wife Jill had accepted a generous donation for her failed senatorial campaign from Clinton-crony Terry McAuliffe. McCabe was also portrayed as the catalyst behind the investigation into Michael Flynn, a man he has a well-documented personal grudge against. Needless to say, Trump supporters were astounded that he was chosen by Wray to remain the FBI’s #2 man. The revelation would prove far more astounding than any further reports of malfeasance on behalf of McCabe and/or the FBI.
As it turns out, the FBI would in fact be the subject of more embarrassing reports further affirming the reality that they had become a partisan agency under Obama-appointed leadership. As it became public knowledge that deputy director McCabe would cancel his appearance before the committee, dots were quickly connected.
When he does appear, McCabe is almost certain to be put through all sorts of ‘what did you know, and when did you know it’-type questioning. With a fresh controversy on his plate, it appears as if McCabe wants to get as much preparation in as possible to ensure his story comes off as believably as possible. To most, yet another coincidence which paints the FBI in a poor light is unbelievable regardless of how McCabe eventually spins it, but this coincidence is going to prove particularly tough for the FBI to distance itself from.
After all, Bruce Ohr, the subject of the latest report, remains the director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and was the associate deputy attorney general until his demotion last week. That demotion came on the eve of a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report which ‘indicates that Ohr met during the 2016 campaign with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the “dossier.”’
‘Additionally, House investigators have determined that Ohr met shortly after the election with Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS – the opposition research firm that hired Steele to compile the dossier with funds supplied by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. By that point, according to published reports, the dossier had been in the hands of the FBI, which exists under the aegis of DOJ, for some five months, and the surveillance on Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump campaign, had started more than two months prior.’ (Fox)
This Steele dossier was the same report that many believe was used to justify further wire-tapping on associates of then president-elect Trump, including Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. Making matters worse, it has been revealed that Ohr’s wife, Nellie H. Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS at the time, making the coincidence that the dossier was supplied by an independent third party not associated with the DNC or the FBI even more unlikely. Though the FBI has yet to confirm whether or not the dossier was the basis for continued eavesdropping which included correspondence with Trump himself, this report brings the agency one step closer to a charge of collusion with the DNC and former President Obama, charges on which the court of public opinion long-ago found the bureau guilty.
The FBI apparently does not fire anybody, not even those with the most damning appearance of conflicting interests, from McCabe to Ohr. This is the primary reason why their reputation seems irreparable at this point, and why Christopher Wray is viewed as a dud who once promised real change within the bureau. It appears as if the bureau relies upon the House Intelligence Committee and Fox News to out their employees as compromised – remember the Hatch Act tends to hold agents to a higher standard of political independence than most government employees – before they do. This is no low-level mailroom employee, either. Ohr reportedly works four doors down from deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is charged with supervising Robert Mueller’s probe into Donald Trump. Are we supposed to believe that the FBI is not able to discover Ohr’s secret meetings, let alone his spouse’s employment status, more quickly than an arm of Congress?
Such a belief is nothing short of laughable, though Devin Nunes and the House Intelligence Committee should be commended on their role in uncovering this connection, which apparently lied in clear sight. But the FBI continues to cover for their own, stating that Ohr’s demotion had nothing to do with the revelations that he was so closely involved with Fusion GPS. He was simply spread too thin “wearing two hats”.
"It is unusual for anyone to wear two hats as he has done recently. This person is going to go back to a single focus—director of our organized crime and drug enforcement unit. As you know, combating transnational criminal organizations and drug trafficking is a top priority for the attorney general."(Fox)
Hat #1: FBI employee. Hat #2: DNC errand boy.
The FBI has done seemingly everything possible not to hold its employees accountable, and not to cooperate with ongoing investigations into its outsize role in facilitating the DNC’s agenda. Paul Ryan and numerous investigators on the committee have stated that, in response to the issuance of subpoenas and documented requests, they have been “stonewalled” by both the DOJ and FBI. Now, McCabe will stonewall the committee until at least next Tuesday as he gathers himself and receives briefings on what to say and more importantly, what not to say or remember when he gives his behind-closed-doors testimony.
And, maybe one of these days when the FBI is ready to make him available, the Committee will be able to conduct their promised hearing with former agent Peter Strzok too. That is, if they’re lucky.
