But first, here are the background facts:
• As deputy director of the FBI, McCabe had oversight authority over all FBI investigations, including the Clinton email investigation and the Clinton Foundation investigation. The report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz makes the case that McCabe authorized disclosures to the media that were designed to combat the perception that he had a conflict of interest in overseeing dual FBI investigations related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWarren endorses Texas Democrat Cuellar's primary challenger Ten notable Democrats who do not favor impeachment Krystal Ball: Warren's Hillary connections revealed? “[W]hen Mr. McCabe turned back to the draft statement they prepared for him several months later, he declined to sign it and instead contacted INSD to correct the inaccurate facts about his relationship to the WSJ article.”

Beyond the accuracy of McCabe’s statements to investigators, the inspector general’s report released Friday also took sharp issue with McCabe’s move to authorize the media disclosure in the first place. Representatives for McCabe called all of those findings “false,” saying much of the report “is based on a deeply flawed assessment of the evidence against Mr. McCabe.”

The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz was released publicly on Friday, less than one month after Sessions said his private review of the report led him to conclude McCabe should be removed from government immediately. The highly anticipated report detailed an investigation that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited when he fired McCabe last month, hours before the 21-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was set to retire and receive his full pension. DOJ internal watchdog: McCabe 'lacked candor' in at least 4 instances

The Wall Street Journal article at the center of the OIG's inquiry into McCabe was published on October 30, 2016, two days after James Comey, the FBI director at the time, announced in a letter to Congress that the bureau was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. According to the Horowitz report, the disclosures were in part designed “to rebut a narrative that … questioned McCabe’s impartiality in overseeing FBI investigations involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and claimed that McCabe had ordered the termination of the [Clinton Foundation] Investigation due to Department of Justice pressure.”



The disclosure to Barrett, the report states, “effectively confirmed the existence” of the Clinton Foundation investigation — something then-Director James Comey James Brien ComeyGraham calls on Barr to declassify files on DOJ watchdog's Russia probe Trump ramps up Twitter offensive as Dorian approaches Florida Trump suggests watchdog report shows Mueller probe was 'illegal' MORE was at that point refusing to do. “At no time did McCabe disclose to either of them that McCabe had authorized [an FBI attorney] to disclose information … to the WSJ reporter.”

The day after the article’s publication, McCabe spoke face-to-face with Comey, who expressed concern about information contained in the news article, according to the inspector general's report. In its report released Friday, the inspector general’s office said McCabe “lacked candor” in July 2017 when he told investigators – under oath – “that he was not aware of [the FBI attorney] having been authorized to speak to reporters around October 30,” and he “lacked candor” again four months later when he acknowledged authorizing the disclosure but “stated that he told Comey on October 31, 2016, that he had authorized the disclosure to the WSJ.”

Representatives for McCabe noted that two business days after speaking with investigators in July 2017, McCabe contacted the inspector general’s office “and corrected his prior statements.”

“Mr. "We concluded that McCabe's decision to confirm the existence of the [Clinton Foundation] Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior Department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception," the inspector general's report said.
The U.S. government releases a report by Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz that accuses former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe of improperly authorizing a media disclosure and "lack of candor" concerning this disclosure.