The criminal investigation into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has been closed without charges, the Justice Department said Friday.
“At long last, justice has been done in this matter,” McCabe’s attorneys Michael R. Bromwich and David Schertler said in a statement.
For years, Trump has characterized the former FBI deputy as a representative of the so-called “deep state” that supposedly sought to resist his presidency from inside the government.
Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe in March 2018 — just as he prepared to retire after decades of government service. McCabe then sued the government claiming his ouster was political retaliation.
In December, he accused the Trump administration of withholding evidence in the suit.
An internal investigation found in 2018 that McCabe “lacked candor” regarding a leak to the media. The inspector general’s office forwarded its findings to prosecutors, but in the months that followed charges were never filed against the former James Comey deputy. McCabe has denied knowingly misleading investigators.
Later in 2018, reports revealed that prosecutors were using a grand jury to investigate McCabe’s actions. In September 2019, prosecutors were authorized to seek an indictment. But none came.
McCabe’s case was one of several politically sensitive cases being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which has been under fire in recent days over allegations that its sentencing recommendation for Trump confidante Roger Stone was watered down by the Attorney General Bill Barr under pressure from the President. Four career prosecutors withdrew from the case amid the change in sentencing recommendation, and one resigned from the Justice Department entirely.
Trump has reportedly raged over the lack of charges against McCabe.
Read the letter to McCabe’s lawyers below:
