McMaybe We Need to Drain the Swamp
Are you a real American patriot? Of course, and you still believe in the land of the free and the home of the brave, right? This is why I am providing today’s factual accounting of Andrew McCabe’s sordid and un-patriotic recent past. When it comes to the deep state, McCabe is today's poster boy for the self-serving and powerful sinners that have no place in US intelligence or law enforcement. Furthermore, my antipathy for McCabe is ever-growing because the person he presents in public is not who he is in private. I dislike that mean-spirited sheriff in Arizona (Joe Arpaio), but he was a jerk both behind and before the cameras.
The greatest gotcha question of all time was asked by Senator Howard Baker (R-TN) during the Watergate hearings: “What did the president know and when did he know it?” I think this line of questioning will eventually lead to indictments and convictions for Andrew McCabe (who is in full-on spin mode today). McCabe has three very serious time-and-action problems that are before the law.
The first time-and-action evidence against McCabe surrounds his treatment of 15-year FBI veteran Robyn Gritz, who had received only excellent or outstanding performance reviews until Special Agent Andrew McCabe became her boss in 2012. By 2013, Gritz had filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint alleging sexual discrimination, hostile work environment, and defamation of character. In 2015, McCabe gave her a negative performance rating and (in her words) forced Gritz to resign.
In Washington, an EEOC complaint against a government bigwig is a very serious matter, and McCabe looks guilty. FBI records prove that McCabe had the Office of Professional Responsibility investigate Gritz for “time card irregularities” just two weeks after Gritz filed her EEOC complaint. The FBI’s initial response to the EEOC claimed Gritz was, “underperforming, tardy to work, insubordinate, (and) possibly mentally ill.” That response describes almost all of the government workers I have ever encountered - except the mentally ill.
The response was dumb, because it eventually came out the FBI tried to disallow testimony in support of Gritz from senior members in the Department of Defense (Generals Stanley McChrystal and Keith Alexander) who had actually worked with Gritz. It was only later and under oath that McCabe admitted the FBI had begun its internal investigation into Gritz’s personal conduct after he had learned that she “had filed or intended to file” a sex discrimination complaint. Is this textbook evidence and admission of McCabe’s illegal retaliation against an FBI employee - or what?
The second time-and-action evidence against McCabe involves his actions and omissions during his wife’s run for the Virginia state senate. Last year, Robyn Gritz filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel alleging McCabe violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from engaging “in political activity in concert with a political party, a candidate for partisan political office, or a partisan political group.” Jill McCabe ran as a Democrat, and her campaign overlapped the Clinton email-server investigation, from which her husband only recused himself weeks before the investigation was over. This looks really bad.
On top of the Gritz complaint, add Senator Chuck Grassley’s allegation that McCabe failed to disclose on his FBI ethics disclosure forms $700,000 in contributions to his wife’s campaign, and that he should have recused himself from the investigation of Clinton’s private email server. This looks really-really bad, but it gets worse. The special counsel has found that Governor Terry McAuliffe (long-time Clinton friend) recruited McCabe’s wife for her first political campaign and arranged for $460,000 in campaign seed corn – just days after the New York Times reported the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server.
Joseph diGenova (former US Attorney for DC) asserted in the February 2018 edition of Imprimis magazine that McCabe should be investigated for quid pro quo bribery – and not just conflict of interest – because he shut down two Clinton investigations (Clinton Foundation by FBI’s NYC office plus the email server), while ordering agents to materially alter their FBI 302 reports. Be honest, why do you think McAuliffe picked an unknown political rookie over other Virginia Democrats? Hint: Jill lost the election – but after the Clinton investigation was over.
The final time-and-action evidence concerns the post-election Flynn surveillance and FBI interview. By 2016, McCabe had become Deputy Director of the FBI and a lead proponent of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation. According to Circa e-magazine, three fearful and anonymous FBI employees have come forward to claim McCabe’s dislike for Flynn was so apparent they became “uncomfortable [as] pressure built to investigate Flynn.” McCabe not only set up the Flynn interview, he charged his crony Peter Strzok to conduct Flynn’s interview in which he was alleged to have made false statements.
The interview took place during Inauguration week and McCabe sent the same FBI agents who had met with Flynn to discuss security clearances. Flynn testified under oath that he thought the visit was to continue discussing his security clearance – except the agents wanted to discuss Flynn’s conversation with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, which had been overheard on a FISA wiretap. As you know, Flynn took a plea bargain in front of Judge Rudolph Contreras - and here is where things get messy.
Did you know Judge Contreras was the judge who had signed the FISA warrant to spy on the Flynn-Kislyak conversation? Did you know Contreras recused himself from the case immediately after he accepted Flynn’s plea bargain? And did you know that former FBI Director Comey told members of Congress the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn believed his inaccuracies were inadvertent and that he had not intentionally lied.
It is no coincidence the DOJ has decided to delay Flynn’s sentencing. It is also no coincidence the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility recommended to Attorney General Sessions that Andrew McCabe be fired because he had lied to investigators and leaked confidential information to the news media. If you sort of like McCabe just because Trump dislikes him - - don’t be that person.
His treatment of Robyn Gritz predates Obama’s second election – long before Trump even thought about running for president. McCabe’s involvement with the Clinton email server investigation - and his wife’s campaign contributions – have nothing to do with Donald Trump. At issue is McCabe's unethical leadership of an FBI department, disobeying the law, and partisan enforcement of the law. This begs one last question: do you think McCabe was an exemplary senior official at the FBI – or did power corrupt yet another bureaucrat?