Andrew McCabe, the disgraced and unceremoniously fired former deputy director of the FBI, was immediately given the martyrs’’ treatment by the media when Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought the ax down on his lying head. Offered rebuttal space in the Washington Post, the support of anti-Trump liberals in every corner of the TV spectrum, and the fierce loyalty of Democrats, McCabe was immediately categorized as yet another victim of the monstrous dictator currently residing in the White House.
But perhaps the winds are about to change.
This week, CNN was forced to print a story they were undoubtedly hoping to avoid. In it, they admit that multiple government sources have told them about the contents of the forthcoming internal FBI report on the handling of the Clinton investigation, within which lie the details of McCabe’s deception. According to those sources, McCabe was not honest about his interactions with a journalist from the Wall Street Journal and probably deserved to be thrown out on his keister…if not charged with criminal misconduct.
At the very least, CNN’s sources leave us to draw one of two conclusions: Either Andrew McCabe is lying…or his former boss is.
“The internal FBI report that served as grounds for the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe includes key testimony from his former boss that shows a discrepancy with McCabe’s public statements, according to multiple sources familiar with the report,” reports the network. “Former FBI Director James Comey told internal investigators at the Justice Department that he could not recall McCabe telling him about having authorized FBI officials to talk to a reporter about an ongoing investigation, the sources said.”
This doesn’t jibe with McCabe’s public comments after his firing, in which he told the world that Comey was fully aware of his interactions with the Journal.
“It was not a secret,” he said. “It took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter.”
McCabe’s lawyer now says that it all comes down to a misunderstanding.
“One thing is clear: Mr. McCabe never misled Director Comey,” said his attorney. “Director Comey’s memory of these interactions was equivocal and speculative, while Mr. McCabe’s recollection is clear, unequivocal and supported by documentary evidence. Director Comey has no specific recollection of what Mr. McCabe told him, while Mr. McCabe remembers the two discussed the article before and after its publication.”
Comey’s memory is “speculative?” But this guy runs and writes a memo every time he eats a stale donut. Suddenly we’re not to trust his powers of recollection?
We don’t necessarily trust either of these guys, but Rep. Jim Jordan says that the discrepancy between Comey and McCabe is only the tip of the iceberg as it pertains to the latter’s deception. In an interview with Fox News, Jordan said that the forthcoming FBI report will show that McCabe lied no less than four times: Once to Comey, once to internal FBI investigators, and twice to the Office of the Inspector General. He did not correct the record with the inspector general until nearly a year after he leaked his story to the Wall Street Journal.
As such, this story follows the same pattern as so many of the fake news stories about the Trump administration. The media jumps onto a narrative, disregards any and all fact-checking responsibilities, and is slowly but surely proven wrong over the coming weeks and months. Unfortunately for Trump (and our very democracy), the public has a tendency to remember the original story and miss the subsequent corrections.
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