McCabe says he hasn’t been contacted by FBI in Comey probe
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said on Sunday he has not been contacted “at all” by federal authorities in the investigation into former FBI Director James Comey.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” McCabe told host Jake Tapper that it’s “unbelievable” to him that the FBI wouldn’t have asked to talk to him, considering McCabe’s own account of events ahead of the 2016 election are cited in the indictment brought against Comey.
“Yeah, not at all, Jake. I’ve not been contacted. I haven’t been interviewed, did not ask to interview me,” McCabe said, when asked whether the FBI has contacted or interviewed McCabe “at all regarding this investigation into James Comey.”
“And of course, if my interactions with Jim Comey nine years ago, in October 2016, was going to be the basis of this entire prosecution, it’s unbelievable to think that prosecutors wouldn’t at least want to sit down and hear what I had to say about it,” McCabe said, noting he “could potentially be a fact witness or just to understand what my perspective is, and that has never happened.”
A federal grand jury this past week indicted Comey on charges of making a false statement as well as another for obstruction of a congressional proceeding in connection with testimony he gave before the Senate in 2020.
The federal charges stem from an exchange between Comey and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during a Sept. 30, 2020, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cruz asked about conflicting accounts from Comey and McCabe regarding a leak to The Wall Street Journal about the Clinton investigation days before the 2016 election.
McCabe had indicated Comey knew about and authorized the leak. Comey maintained he was unaware of the leak and that McCabe, in a conversation after the story was published, implied he, too, wasn’t involved.
A 2018 inspector general report sided with Comey’s account, saying McCabe authorized the leak and “lacked candor” when he told his boss and later investigators that he didn’t.
“What Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true. One or the other is false. Who’s telling the truth?” Cruz pressed.
Comey responded, “I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by the testimony you summarized.”
The charging documents allege Comey authorized an unnamed “Person 3” to leak details of an FBI investigation. ABC News and CNN reported Friday that refers to Daniel Richman, a Columbia Law School professor who has previously confirmed leaking a memo he received from Comey detailing the then-director’s interactions with Trump.
The indictment also says Comey lied when he was denied having ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source of news reports about the Trump or Clinton probes.
“All I can say to that, Jake, is I’m not aware of Jim Comey ever authorizing some other person to leak information. That’s not something I experienced personally. It’s not something I saw in all the time I spent working around Jim Comey,” McCabe said, when asked whether he thinks Comey was being honest when he said he never authorized a leak.
“So I can’t sit here and characterize his testimony — which I think is far from clear enough to be the basis of a false statement or perjury prosecution — but nevertheless, all I can say is what my own experience revealed, and that is, I didn’t ever see Jim Comey authorizing other people to leak information.”