McCabe walks
And it’s not a perp walk, either:
The Justice Department said Friday it will not pursue criminal charges against former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, after a nearly two-year-long investigation into accusations brought by the agency’s independent watchdog who claimed that he lacked “candor” when questioned about leaking to the media.
In a letter to McCabe attorney Michael Bromwich obtained by Fox News, Justice Department attorney J.P. Cooney said the investigation is now “closed.”
“We write to inform you that, after careful consideration, the Government has decided not to pursue criminal charges against your client, Andrew G. McCabe,’” Cooney wrote.
The DOJ added: “Based on the totality of the circumstances and all of the information known to the Government at this time, we consider the matter closed.”
McCabe’s attorneys stated “At long last, justice has been done in this matter.”
Ah, yes. If they didn’t have double standards they’d have no standards at all.
Prosecution on charges such as this is not for Deep Staters to receive, it is for them to give – and to give to Republicans and in particular Trump supporters. It’s really quite clear that the law was designed to get them, and not august Pooh-Bahs such as McCabe, Comey, Hillary Clinton, and the like.
The irony is a bitter one. Not unexpected, however. And perhaps that’s the saddest thing of all: we have come to expect this sort of thing. As Bonchie of Red State puts it:
Right in the middle of a national dust-up over Roger Stone supposedly deserving nine years in prison, news is coming across the wire that former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe will not face charges for blatantly lying to the FBI (something he admitted to and was fired over).
[ADDENDUM: Questions:
How much control does Barr have over a decision like this? What is DOJ protocol? Is the decision made by lower-downs in the department who have worked on the nuts and bolts of the case? Does he just sign off on it? How involved is he?
Will we ever get any kind of explanation – bogus or not – for why the decision was not to prosecute? I think I know why: they are protecting their own, and/or they don’t think they have enough evidence for a conviction. But I’m interested in their answer, and I’m also interested in whether they even think they owe the public any explanation at all. So far I’ve been unable to find one.]
Comey, Brennan, and Clapper (amongst many others, including Schiff and Nadler in the House) have lied egregiously and often, yet, in my estimation, they are unlikely ever to be held to account. At the same time, leftists are screeching and squawking about concerns among conservatives that, just perhaps, the sentence for Roger Stone should not exceed what is often given to convicted rapists, murderers, and armed robbers.
I hate to state this but when the game is rigged, there’s only one answer. Don’t play.
People have got to stop voluntarily cooperating with the FBI or any other federal law enforcement agency. Don’t answer any question. Invoke the 5th and ask for your lawyer. It sucks that some bad dudes may benefit but fighting against tyranny is seldom bloodless.
Mike
I’m forced to agree with Mr. Bunge.
AG Barr my guess is, either made this decision or agreed to it. Why? Because this charge is puny, as with Comey. Barr and Trump have bigger fish, bigger more potent offenses to go after. Why waste scare resources on lowly stuff? Nah. Aim high, win higher.
McCabe’s attorneys stated “At long last, justice has been done in this matter.”
Schauspiel altogether. Performance art for the low-info dopes who happily lap it up. Not buying.
I’m also interested in whether they even think they owe the public any explanation at all.
Supposedly the normal protocol, breached by Comey with Hillary, and even more so by Mueller, is not to explain anything if the decision is not to prosecute. That was Dershowitz’s big gripe about both Comey and Mueller. But there is just so much inconsistency in how these cases are handled that more transparency is really needed.
Typo, apologies: not “scare”, but scarce.
So…not exonerated?
@sdferr – Stone, Manafort, and Flynn were “lowly stuff” in the grand scheme of things. Process crimes et al. Didn’t stop anyone from wasting resources on them.
@Jimmy – it’s perfectly consistent if you know what you’re looking at, which is a two tier justice system. If you’re on the correct side of the fence you can do as you please.
Anger! But not unexpected. I have been saying for 3 yr nothing will happen to any Dem.
Stone, Manafort, and Flynn were “lowly stuff” in the grand scheme of things. Process crimes et al. Didn’t stop anyone from wasting resources on them.
And?
The good don’t imitate the evil, do they? There’s righteous business to be about right now. Huge undertakings, necessary undertakings. Focus on that, say I.
And, when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you? – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast – man’s laws, not God’s – and, if you cut them down – and you’re just the man to do it – d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then??
Meanwhile authorities seem to rearing up for another whack at Jussie Smollett — or Juicy Smollay, the “famous French actor,” as Dave Chappelle prefers it — but so far not even Rahm Emmanuel on his home turf can bring Smollett down.
Juicy is juiced in.
After two days of deadlocked deliberations, the jurors in the trial of D.C. Mayor Marion Barry were examining the evidence that FBI agents seized from the mayor after the Vista Hotel sting: a crack pipe, a suit coat, business cards. Inside a clear plastic bag was a piece of the white, rock-like substance he’d smoked — 93 percent pure crack cocaine, an FBI chemist had said.
Valerie Jackson-Warren was suspicious. The D.C. Corrections Department secretary told fellow jurors that this wasn’t crack. Crack is yellow, and this looked like sugar, she said. Juror Johnnie Mae Hardeman, a former Garfinckel’s employee, agreed. Perhaps it was baking soda, she said.
Tonna Norman, a Pentagon records manager, shook her head and walked away from the evidence table in disgust. She couldn’t believe jurors were disputing facts not contested by anybody at the trial. “This is getting out of control,” she told juror Joseph M. Deoudes.
Later, several jurors said, the judge stated they couldn’t debate uncontested facts. Not even Barry’s lawyer denied that the substance was crack. But the skeptics remained firm. “How do you change someone’s mind when they look at an evidence bag there’s crack in, and they say it’s not crack?” said a juror.
Much the same DC jury pool that threw out Barry’s crack evidence and threw the book at Roger Stone awaits their Obama era coup-plotting friends.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/library/dc/barry/jurors.htm
Is this like the walk they used to do on soul train?
What govermental, or otherwise, institutions can we trust? Does anyone observing the government not see how it protects those it considers “its own”, especially seeing the treatment of Clinton and McCabe versus Trump and Stone?
The Catholic Church and Boy Scouts have been mired under sexual scandals, admittedly of their own making. But these were admired and not long ago even by Hollywood.
The erosion of trust will not end well. What will take the place of these since they are so degraded in many people’s minds?
The first Kingsman movie had the elite hiding in an underground bunker while they hit a button so the rest of the world fought it out to the death. It doesn’t look like they even have to hide, just cause chaos for the masses and they will follow the script.
In this country, if not the whole world, the elites and the rich decide who are the favored and privileged and who it can be stuck to. Race, color, ethnicity have little to do with the makeup this group.
Justice and equal protection under the law? Long time since I heard those words around here.
Catherine Herridge, twitter: SCOOP: “Chairman Senate Judiciary formally asks AG Barr to make witnesses available for probe ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ + FISA CBSNews told ‘former Dept employees’ cited in letter will be contacted directly, plan to call Comey, McCabe, Yates, Rosenstein among others Lindsey Graham SC”
See link for Graham letter.
This makes it imperative that these problems be dealt with by public policy.
A. See Angelo Codevilla’s recent article on the CIA. Dissolve the agency.
B. Break the FBI into little pieces and fire the upper management. Sort law enforcement and protective services into about seven departments and scatter the bits of the FBI between a couple of them.
1. The Armed Services
2. Civil defense and disaster relief (incl Coast Guard)
3. Custody: jails, prisons, specialized detention, probation, parole.
4. Security services on federal civilian property, dignitary proteciton, cybersecurity, and supplementary manpower to MPs
5. Investigations: divvied up into a menu of specialized bureaux to deal with fraud, the drug trade, immigration, customs, &c
6. Stationary law enforcement & misc: customs, border guard, federal marshals &c.
7. Representation of the government as plaintiff (receiving investigatory work product but not initiating investigations or conducting them).
C. Scarify the federal criminal code and recalibrate sentencing.
D. End unqualified immunity for judges and prosecutors.
None of this is surprising, the concept that all are equal under the law has never existed.
So — they wiped him clean? Like, with a cloth?
The fear of wasting resources is not a hallmark of our intrepid federal agencies, including, but certainly not limited to, the FBI.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/02/13/buried_in_ig_report_fbi_gave_steele_highly_protected_secrets_122394.html
“What’s more, Steele, the former British spy who compiled the “dossier” of conspiracy theories for the Hillary Clinton campaign, was promised $15,000 to attend the briefing by FBI agents eager to maintain his cooperation in their Trump-Russia collusion investigation codenamed Crossfire Hurricane.”
Now, if you wanted to argue that they didn’t want to waste the limited time of the three remaining honest agents and prosecutors, well, I might go for that.
If you can name them.
Good news or bad news?
Depends on who those three honest lawyers are.
https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/02/14/breaking-doj-has-ordered-an-outside-prosecutor-to-review-michael-flynn-case/
Lots more on-topic posts at RedState (the topic being Democratic perfidy, so it’s a big one).
Read for Bongino’s arguments, but there is really no doubt about Vaughn’s conclusion.
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/02/14/dan-bongino-was-ag-barr-set-up-by-stone-prosecutors-to-give-appearance-he-had-intervened-for-trump-damaging-his-credibility/
Dershowitz, during a Hannity interview mostly with Nunes, nails it on the vengeful sentence recommendation for Stone.
https://www.redstate.com/stu-in-sd/2020/02/14/eyes-continue-to-turn-toward-mueller%e2%80%99s-goons/
In support of the “let the little things go, even if undeniably true and just as bad as anything a Republican was indicted for” — I would at least have left McCabe’s lawyers wondering, because the “big things” might fall apart.
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2020/02/14/there-it-is-chairman-sen-judiciary-asks-ag-barr-to-make-crossfire-hurricane-witnesses-available-including-comey-and-mccabe/
You have to decode the twitterese, and the employees are listed under their IG report pseudonyms, but everyone apparently knows who they are.
I suspect this will hit all the BREAKING!! BOMBSHELL!! reports soon.
Nothing the Times says is without pernicious motives.
This affects the McCabe “important investigation” that Herridge thinks is in the offing.
https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/02/14/latest-leaks-about-cia-and-brennan-hiding-evidence-are-an-obvious-attempt-to-sandbag-durhams-investigation/
They have to say “allegedly” because there was no trial, and thus no conviction, but he confessed to lying in front of the entire viewing public, so it’s kind of hard to take that adverb seriously.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/andrew-mccabe-absolute-disgrace-my-family-was-put-through-this-experience
You might get the idea that only Democrats suffer under unjust suspicions, but substitute “Trump” for “McCabe” and “three plus” years for “two” — or ask the Flynns, the Stones, the Pages, the Manaforts, and other families what it’s like to have your lives trammeled by the law-enforcement establishment for being on the wrong side of the political aisle.
This is truly disgusting, deflating, and confidence shaking. Maybe the deep state isn’t deep at all, as in underground. It’s out there smacking us in the face from the top of the tiers. Trump has everybody aligned against him, and his base is the only thing the GOPe fears, or he’d be convicted and out of office by now.
I’m 75 and have always pooh -poohed those who say we can’t trust our own government, but it’s become very clear over the last 3 years that we absolutely cannot trust them. I served in the Marines for 9 years. The Marine generals, Mattis, Kelly and McMaster, who turned against our President are beneath contempt IMO.
My only hope is that they are going to get McCabe for more serious stuff, like the “insurance policy” that was hatched in his office. I’ll have to see it to believe it though.
Meanwhile I’ll keep wearing my MAGA hat and carrying concealed just in case.
On a brighter note I’m going to the Trump rally here in Phoenix next week, my first. That should be fun.
God bless Trump and keep him safe.
AesopFan, as to Senator Lindsey’s move to “investigation”, there’s a theory floating around out there (y’know, out there) that the serious work Durham has to do in the quiet is complete or near enough that the Senator can be given the high sign to go, having put it off as long as need required. Now, the theory entails a near term move to action, i.e. indictments, by Durham. Could be? Could be. Cooperation isn’t entirely unknown in DC.
McCabe is getting a pass on the IG findings here, which is small beer. Durham is still investigating him. So McCabe should probably keep his grin bottled up.
The media, as usual, even some of the people on the right, are looking at this a bit in the wrong way. McCabe is not scott free yet. Not saying it couldn’t happen, as so far the Deep State is batting 1000.
I’ll throw in the towel completely if Durham indicts no one by mid summer. Until then, hope is the thing with feathers.
Just one thing to remember: If McCabe has had to pay for all his lawyers out of his own pocket, as well as forfeit some of his pension, then he has already suffered a spectacular “fine” for his misbehavior. Remember that the legal fees involved in being the target for this sort of investigation forced Flynn to plead guilty.
One of the basic sources of corruption of our legal system is that, unlike virtually all the rest of the world’s westernized legal systems, it does not have any form of “loser-pays” rule. A “loser-pays” rule forces the losing side of a lawsuit to pay society for having to conduct a trial — usually by being billed for the winning side’s legal fees and sometimes for the government’s court costs as well. It forces litigants to be really sure that they’re in the right — that they have the better case — before filing or defending against a law suit instead of settling it.
A little thought shows how thoroughly loser-pays acts to discourage legal mischief. Imagine what this rule would do to the budgets of political pressure groups that exist mostly to litigate against politics and industries they dislike! Most of the questionable law suits they filed would end up costing them money over and above their base-line legal fees, and the more they tried to win it in court, the more it would cost them. In the current scandals surrounding the 2016 election, for example, a loser-pays rule would have let Flynn defend his innocence to his heart’s content, with the government paying his fees when he was acquitted. Juries would almost automatically decide against charges of “lying to investigators” when the “lies” were obvious instances of not being able to remember every little detail many months later. This would put big holes in the prosecutor’s yearly budgets as they ended up paying for the other sides’ legal fees and court costs.
Why does the US legal system **not** have a loser-pays rule? I cannot help noting that this defect drives up the demand for lawyers. Any organization with lawyers on its payroll (who have to get paid no matter what) might as well put them to work suing about everything under the sun because there is no penalty for losing a case. This flood of likely-to-fail lawsuits forces organizations on the other side to defend themselves in court — again driving up the demand for lawyers. If there was a loser-pays rule, there would now be a penalty for losing legal battles which would start to reduce the demand for lawyers to a reasonable level, allowing the courts to concentrate on situations where genuine injustices have occurred.
It is almost impossible to over-emphasize the bad consequences of this defect in our legal system.
It’s all too baroque for me to figure.
I do not understand why McCabe can’t be hit from several sides near-simultaneously. He and Comey and Brennan are not small beer.
He and Comey and Brennan are not small beer.
Granted as to persons. But hang on a minute: what . . . what if . . . ach, Gott im Himmel, what if they were under orders?
Yes, but orders from who? Who could be the boss of them?
Oh. Oh no! Oh no, not him?
Wanna take him down? Small beer? Think about this.
How would this possibly work, if one were serious?
I tend to agree with titan28, @ 5:53 pm. Maybe that’s because I’m unjustifiably optimistic. McCabe skates on the charges of leaking, but there are those bogus FISA warrants still to deal with.
This may have already been covered [I skipped ahead in reading the comments].
The FBI or other federal agents, do not wander the neighborhood and knock on doors to visit with the citizenry. If they knock on your door, they are doing it for a reason and they think you are involved in something that interests them. Do not answer questions other than to confirm your identity. Decline to speak further and ask for their business card so your attorney can set up an interview. Statements like “I know nothing about that…” or “No, I wasn’t there..” can turn into crimes if they have what they think is evidence otherwise.
Link to Mr. Codevilla’s article mentioned above, “Abolish CIA & FISA,” 2/12/20 in the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind :
https://americanmind.org/essays/abolish-the-cia/
* * *
How to defend the Republic against the Deep State.
[Introductory italics are by the Editors, at source. –J.]
See source for full article and proper formatting.
I think I saw some speculation that the Grand Jury was a problem with McCabe.
Blue Bubble juries IMO will be a huge problem if a lot of Swamp bigwigs are tried. It is easy to visualize demonstrators outside juror homes and at their workplaces and their children’s schools.
Jurors who voted to convict would need the sort of protection mob turncoats receive. Their lives in the Blue Enclaves would be over.
I don’t have a solution. I do think Trump will take both houses this year and there will be an opportunity to do something, but I am not sure what.
I think it is likely that Trump will lose both houses in 2022. There will be lots of GOP retirements. The takeover of the GOP by single issue pro-lifers will insure that nobody comes out of a 2022 GOP Primary whose main goal is not overturning Roe.
Rabid social conservatives like the Texas Representative who filed a bill providing the death penalty for a woman having an abortion will be the face of the 2022 GOP. The bill actually got a hearing and an overflow of witnesses wishing to testify in favor.
The wrath directed at those in the GOP who are soft on Life is as bad or worse than the craziness in the Progressive camp seen during the Kavanaugh confirmation. Pro-Lifers now control the GOP from the Precincts to the State Chairs, and they have one and only one goal, ending Roe.
Sad, disappointed, angry; but not so surprised.
Another Dem avoids trial for crimes because (Dem) deep state chooses not to prosecute.
He’s guilty, but the “law” doesn’t count for him – he’s a high ranking Dem.
See HR Clinton on illegal server & emails:
She’s guilty, but the “law” doesn’t count for her – she’s a high ranking Dem.
Dems get PR coverage from the Dem media.
It’s so unjust, so unfair — it makes me so angry.
I wonder if it makes independents angry enough to vote Rep for House contests in Nov? — nah, it will all be memory holed by Durham’s results.
Or non-results.
We should not be surprised if Durham also indicts nobody; tho I’m hoping he does, including McCabe. And it won’t surprise me if he does indict some (60%) – but (40%) no indictments seems all too sadly likely.
My read is that something bigger is coming. After all, John Dillinger committed traffic violations, too.
My quick reading this morning of comments around the web from the right is that many have now lost faith in Barr with the McCabe incident. Maybe that was the intent of the Deep State move. But the result is that now many are thinking that Barr is just another DC insider and acting as such. They are also commenting that the Durham report will be a nothing burger. The cynicism is very deep out there now. As one wag said: “I wonder if Barr understands the fire now raging under his arse?”
For myself, I’m confused. The evidence does seem to point to Barr, like Graham, being just full of hot air as their actions seem to go in a different direction. If the Durham report is nothing, then what happens to the conservative support of Trump? Batten the hatches, trim the sails, rocky shoals ahead.
Physicsguy, there are so many I’m uncertain which you intend by “Maybe that was the intent of the Deep State move.”? Does this refer to the Stone sentencing overcharge and resignations? Or are you putting the McCabe charging declination of the lying infractions as a deep state gizmo? Or some other?
Lest we forget:
https://twitter.com/themarketswork/status/1228513442715197440
https://twitter.com/AKA_RealDirty/status/1228536568060743680
H/T Lee Smith blog
And like several commentators have already mentioned, I have a hunch that Barr and Durham will nail McCabe on the rebound. No way to prove it til it happens, of course. (This means that one must remain patient. My own feeling is that B and D are lining up their ducks for the appropriate time. OTOH that’s what I would like to believe. Well, one can always hope….)
BTW, Lee Smith has some powerful stuff on his twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/leesmithdc?lang=en
I could never advocate this, but if this were a novel, the people would take every one of these scumbags who has been let off the hook by the government, try ‘em by a Committee of Vigilance, and (at the very least) tar and feather ‘em, and run ‘em out of the country on a fence rail.
It just absolutely destroys any hope that the swamp can be drained without a whole lot of current government employees being terminated (from employment…..)
Continued:
https://twitter.com/JohnWHuber/status/1228454713458294784
https://twitter.com/RealSLokhova/status/1228737531228889091
An honest-to-goodness low-life.
And Elizabeth Warren—surprise!—has spiced up her absurd campaign by whining about media coverage. Yep, just the thing to appeal to the voters. (Heck if it works for that Trump character, it should surely work for me!)
I keep hearing that Durham and Barr are going to deliver a bit of justice. So far I have seen no evidence to support it. I know the corruption in the DOJ and FBI is horrific. I’ve seen no evidence that Barr recognizes the rot underneath him.
If he doesn’t pull the trigger to demand justice in the worst scandal in our history, he will be viewed as a Quisling. And he needs to do it by summer. Before the election campaign goes into high gear after Labor Day.
From one of the Twits in the first of Barry’s links:
“If you don’t stop lying, you’ll grow up to be a CNN reporter.”
https://twitter.com/timothykendrick/status/1228517288363659265
On the Grand Jury and trial jury problem in DC for Republican defendants.
Read all of Don’s post, but this commenter has a good solution.
https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2020/02/mccabe-walks-lori-loughlin-doesnt.html#more
And the next one was even better.
Good point here:
Deep dive by conservative lawyer-pundit about good reasons to decline prosecuting McCabe.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1228443509469974529.html
Too complex to excerpt, but her legal reasoning looks sound to me.
She was also right about the bushwhacking of General Flynn in 2018, and the arguments are parallel in some ways on the technical aspects of the Fifth Amendment protections for government employees.
https://thefederalist.com/2018/12/19/the-fbi-abused-the-law-to-keep-flynn-from-using-his-right-to-remain-silent/