Tag: FBI

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After 22 Years, Former FBI Deputy Director Fired 2 Days Shy Of His Retirement

Andrew McCabe

This is some stone-cold shit.

After 22 years service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired tonight by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, less than two days shy of his retirement.

From CNN:

McCabe had more recently been regularly taunted by President Donald Trump and besieged by accusations that he had misled internal investigators at the Justice Department.

In a blistering statement Friday night, McCabe said his firing is part of a larger effort to discredit the FBI and the special counsel’s investigation.

“This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally,” McCabe said. “It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work.”

McCabe had been expected to retire this Sunday, on his 50th birthday, when he would have become eligible to receive early retirement benefits.

But Friday’s termination could place a portion of his anticipated pension, earned after more than two decades of service, in significant jeopardy.

Donald Trump, who clearly ordered the firing, weighed in via Twitter:

Here’s McCabe’s statement tonight:

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AG Jeff Sessions Considering Firing Andrew McCabe Just Days Before Retirement, Would Lose Pension After 22 Years At FBI

Andrew McCabe

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is considering firing former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe just days before his retirement.

McCabe is set to officially retire on March 18 but, according to a source, could be fired just days before and lose his pension after a 22-year career.

McCabe stepped down in January, many say he was told to do so. His official retirement couldn’t begin until this Sunday as he needs to be 50 years-old to leave the FBI with his pension intact.

More from CNN:

CNN has learned the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility has recommended McCabe be fired and now the decision is up to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The issue stems from findings in an internal Justice Department watchdog report that claims he misled investigators about his decision to authorize FBI officials to speak to the media about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

A representative for McCabe declined to comment.

That report, which has been complete for over a week, according to the source, has not been released publicly. The office is currently examining how investigations were handled at the department and the FBI in advance of the 2016 presidential election, including, notably, the Hillary Clinton email server probe.

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FBI Admits Failing To Follow Up January Tip On Florida School Shooter Nikolas Cruz

FBI Director Christopher Wray

The FBI has issued a statement via press release which admits that, due to a break in protocol, a tip from a person “close to Nikolas Cruz” (who shot and killed 17 people at a high school in Florida this week) was not followed up which might have led to early intervention with Cruz.

On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.

Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken.

We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said: “We are still investigating the facts. I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly.

“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.”

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FBI Director Contradicts White House Version Of Timeline On Rob Porter Background Check

FBI Director Christopher Wray

Donald Trump’s own hand-picked FBI Director, Christopher Wray, directly contradicted the White House’s timeline regarding now-departed staff secretary Rob Porter’s background security check.

The White House told the press that Porter’s alleged domestic abuse only came to light this month.

But testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, Wray told lawmakers the FBI completed a partial report in March, finished a final report in July, and delivered responses to follow up requests in November.

The White House has never mentioned receiving a report in March. And White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters that the background check was never completed.

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FBI Denounces Release Of GOP Memo Citing “Grave Concerns About Material Omissions Of Fact”

(image via Flickr – Dave Newman)

On Monday, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted to release a four-page memo which they say shows serious anti-Trump bias in the FBI’s ongoing investigation into possible Russian interference and/or collusion with the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

The memo pulls information used to obtain the original FISA warrant which allowed U.S. intelligence units to surveil foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, Carter Page, who was apparently communicating with Russian officials.

House Democrats contend the memo “cherry-picks” only parts of the warrant to paint a certain picture. The Dems wrote their own memo to be released with the GOP version, but the Republicans on the committee blocked that from happening.

For clarity, it’s useful to know that the average FISA warrant application contains between 50-60 pages. So four pages would clearly not represent full transparency.

The Justice Department has already raised flags about the danger of releasing the memo.

And now the FBI, under command of Director Christopher Wray (hand-picked by Donald Trump), says the bureau has “grave concerns” about releasing the memo.

From The New York Times:

The “F.B.I. was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it,” the bureau said in a statement. “As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

Though Mr. Wray’s name was not attached to the statement, the high-profile comment by the F.B.I. thrust him into a confrontation with President Trump, who abruptly fired his predecessor, James B. Comey. Mr. Trump wants to see the memo released, telling people close to him that he believes it makes the case that F.B.I. and Justice Department officials acted inappropriately when they sought the highly classified warrant in October 2016 on the campaign adviser, Carter Page.

The president’s stance puts him at odds with much of his national security establishment. The Justice Department has warned repeatedly that the memo, prepared by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, is misleading and that its release would set a bad precedent for making government secrets public. F.B.I. officials have said privately that the president is prioritizing politics over national security and is putting the bureau’s reputation at risk.

Republicans say it was not made clear to the judge who signed off on the warrant that part of the info in the application, the now-infamous “Steele dossier,” was financed in part by the Democrats during the election.

Donald Trump has claimed the dossier has been proven to be wholly false, but in reality some parts of the dossier have been proven.

Congressional Republicans have been trying to discredit not only the dossier but agents within the FBI. They point to private text messages between two agents last year that seemed to indicate sympathy for Hillary Clinton.

Interestingly, CNN is reporting today that one of those agents, Peter Strzok, who was removed from the investigation, actually drafted former FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress that reopened the investigation into her email use.

Strzok, who co-wrote what appears to be the first draft that formed the basis of the letter Comey sent to Congress, also supported reopening the Clinton investigation once the emails were discovered on disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s laptop, according to a source familiar with Strzok’s thinking. The day after Strzok sent his draft to his colleagues, Comey released the letter to Congress, reigniting the email controversy in the final days of the campaign.

Now, if Strzok wanted the investigation reopened, how does that make him “sympathetic” to Hillary Clinton?

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Donald Trump Trashes FBI, Says Bureau’s Reputation Is In “Tatters”

Two days after former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI regarding conversation he had the Russian ambassador, Donald Trump took to Twitter (where else?) to attack the FBI.

Calling the former FBI director James Comey a liar, Trump tweeted, “After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.”

Reactions from the Twitterverse:

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Trump Finally Finds A New FBI Director

President Trump tweets he has finally found his new FBI Director, and the winner is: former assistant attorney general Christopher Wray.

From NPR:

Wray has been in private practice for the past 12 years, working in litigation as a partner at the King & Spalding law firm in Washington and Atlanta. From 2003 to 2005, he was the assistant attorney general leading the Justice Department’s criminal division. In that post, he worked under attorneys general John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales — as well as former FBI Director James Comey, who was then the deputy attorney general.

From 1997 to 2001, Wray was an assistant U.S. attorney in north Georgia. In May of 2001, he rose to become an associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice, according to his biography at King & Spalding.

According to that bio, Wray “has substantial federal appellate experience, including successful oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Eleventh Circuit sitting en banc and before the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Wray graduated from Yale University in 1989 and also attended law school there, serving as executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Apparently, Wray defended New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the BridgeGate scandal.

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BREAKING: Trump Asked FBI Director Comey To End Flynn Investigation

Whoa.

From The New York Times:

President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo that Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.

The existence of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of the memo to a Times reporter.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

The White House has denied the allegation.

I find it completely believable that Trump, operating like a CEO, not a president, might pull someone aside and ask a favor for a buddy. It’s more “corner office” than “Oval Office” thinking.

Sen. Angus King says things are inching closer and closer to impeachment.

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BREAKING: President Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey

Click to enlarge

Whoa.

President Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey just days after Comey testified on Capitol Hill about the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s election interference and connections between Russia and Trump’s campaign.

The firing comes at the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. See Sessions’ letter below,  along with Trump letter of termination to Comey.

It is odd that (but not un-Trumpian), in his letter to Comey, Trump co-mingles statements of “not being investigated” in the same sentence he fires the man leading that investigation. He wrote that for the masses, not Comey.

Every time someone gets close to Trump and Trump adviser’s ties to Russia, the president does something like this.

Rather Nixonian, no?

I wonder if Trump thinks this will end investigations into Russian ties…?

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BREAKING: Michael Flynn Told FBI He Did Not Discuss Sanctions With Russian Officials

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn may be in legal trouble for lying to the FBI when he was interviewed about his contact with Russian officials during the Trump transition period.

From the Washington Post:

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn denied to FBI agents in an interview last month that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States before President Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said.

The Jan. 24 interview potentially puts Flynn in legal jeopardy, as lying to the FBI is a felony, but any decision to prosecute would ultimately lie with the Justice Department. Some officials said bringing a case could prove difficult in part because Flynn may attempt to parse the definition of sanctions.

A spokesman for Flynn said he had no response. The FBI declined to comment.