Posted on 03/17/2018 4:21:36 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Former top FBI official Andrew McCabe, who was fired late Friday night by Attorney General Jeff Sessions two days before becoming eligible for full pension benefits, said in an extraordinary statement that he was targeted because President Donald Trump wants to destroy him as part of his "war" against special counsel Robert Mueller.
"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 in a statement released shortly after Sessions announced his decision. "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."
The statement was the first time McCabe had spoken candidly of his anger at the Trump White House. In it, he painted a remarkable picture of an administration that tried to politicize its principal law enforcement arm, the FBI, and discredit several of the bureau's longtime leaders, all in an effort to escape scrutiny of Trump by the special counsel.
McCabe noted in his statement that he had knowledge that could be useful to Mueller's investigation into events involving the president.
"Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of (FBI director) James Comey," McCabe said.
Trump's dismissal of Comey and events surrounding it are reported to be a key aspect of Mueller's investigation into the president.
\
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
projection.
McCabe killed Ambassador Stevens and Patriots
to coverup Uranium1, ManpadXFER to ISIS, and
his own groups dalliances with Pizzagate-taken children.
McCabe is soooooo pi****. His little speech....his true colors are coming through loud and clear.
Notice, despite all the noise, McCabe is not denying the basis for his firing.
As a scathing report on McCabe from the Inspector General and a recommendation from the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility to fire McCabe is disregarded, the wailing and gnashing of teeth at CNN is of biblical proportions this morning.
You are absolutely correct.
“wants to destroy him as part of his “war” against special counsel Robert Mueller.”
Whine and cry all you want McCabe...you should be in jail. SCREW you and your pension.
McCabe violated the Hatch Act by openly campaigning for his wife during her failed attempt to win a seat in the Virginia legislature. Despite the fact that a pro-Clinton PAC had pumped about $700,000 into her campaign, McCabe failed to report that when he was assigned to investigate the Clinton email scandal, he did recuse himself later, but he should have done it from the start. Just those things alone should have gotten him fired.
bttt
And you want to destroy Trump to stop the American people from controlling their government, you piece of swamp.
Whose divorce is that? Trump's son?
Don, Jr.’s. I am not saying it is connected in any way to McCabe, but now the MSM will take Don, Jr.’s private life and liberal mocking of that divorce, off the front pages.
A liberal darling just got what was coming to him.
Lil’ Bitch can cry all the tears he wants. His coup has failed. He’d best hope for leniency in sentencing for his crimes of abusing his office, leaking, lying, etc.
There is no “there” there in the “Russia” investigation. However, playing “devil’s advocate”, recall that William Ayers, a man who BOMBED THE PENTAGON admits to being guilty as sin yet free as a bird. The case was blown because of overreach by the FBI, specifically Associate Director Mark Felt (aka Deep Throat). My point, even if Trump HAD done things (which has hardly been shown), the case has been blown because of the way they’ve handled their witchhunt, wiretap, trial-by-media operation.
Among the criminal groups that the FBI investigated in the early 1970s was the Weather Underground. Their case was dismissed by the court because it concluded that the FBI had conducted illegal activities, including unauthorized wiretaps, break-ins, and mail interceptions. The lead federal prosecutor on the case, William C. Ibershof, claims that Mark Felt and Attorney General John N. Mitchell initiated these illegal activities that tainted the investigation.[27]
...In the early 1970s, Felt had supervised Operation COINTELPRO, initiated by Hoover in the 1950s. This period of FBI history has generated great controversy for its abuses of private citizens’ rights. The FBI was pursuing leftist groups, such as the Weather Underground, which had planted bombs at the Capitol, the Pentagon, and the State Department building. Felt, along with Edward S. Miller, authorized FBI agents to break into homes secretly in 1972 and 1973, without a search warrant, on nine separate occasions. These kinds of FBI operations were known as “black bag jobs.” The break-ins occurred at five addresses in New York and New Jersey, at the homes of relatives and acquaintances of Weather Underground members. They did not contribute to the capture of any fugitives. The use of “black bag jobs” by the FBI was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in the Plamondon case, 407 U.S. 297 (1972).
The Church Committee of Congress revealed the FBI’s illegal activities, and many agents were investigated. In 1976, Felt publicly stated he had ordered break-ins, and recommended against punishment of individual agents who had carried out orders. Felt also stated that Patrick Gray had also authorized the break-ins, but Gray denied this. Felt said on the CBS television program Face the Nation he would probably be a “scapegoat” for the Bureau’s work.[55] “I think this is justified and I’d do it again tomorrow,” he said on the program. While admitting the break-ins were “extralegal”, he justified them as protecting the “greater good.” Felt said:
To not take action against these people and know of a bombing in advance would simply be to stick your fingers in your ears and protect your eardrums when the explosion went off and then start the investigation.
Griffin B. Bell, the Attorney General in the Jimmy Carter administration, directed investigation of these cases. On April 10, 1978, a federal grand jury charged Felt, Miller, and Gray with conspiracy to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens by searching their homes without warrants.
The indictment charged violations of Title 18, Section 241 of the United States Code and stated Felt and the others: “Did unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to injure and oppress citizens of the United States who were relatives and acquaintances of the Weatherman fugitives, in the free exercise and enjoyments of certain rights and privileges secured to them by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America.”[56]
Felt told his biographer Ronald Kessler: I was shocked that I was indicted. You would be too, if you did what you thought was in the best interests of the country and someone on technical grounds indicted you.[57]
Felt, Gray, and Miller were arraigned in Washington, DC on April 20. Seven hundred current and former FBI agents were outside the courthouse applauding the “Washington Three”, as Felt referred to himself and his colleagues in his memoir.[58] Gray’s case did not go to trial and was dropped by the government for lack of evidence, on December 11, 1980.
Felt and Miller attempted to plea bargain with the government, willing to agree to a misdemeanor guilty plea to conducting searches without warrants—a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2236. The government rejected the offer in 1979. After eight postponements, the case against Felt and Miller went to trial in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on September 18, 1980.[59] On October 29, former President Richard M. Nixon appeared as a rebuttal witness for the defense. He testified that presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt had authorized the Bureau to engage in break-ins while conducting foreign intelligence and counterespionage investigations.[60] It was Nixon’s first courtroom appearance since his resignation in 1974. Nixon also contributed money to Felt’s defense fund, since Felt’s legal expenses were running over $600,000 by then. Also testifying were former Attorneys General Herbert Brownell Jr., Nicholas Katzenbach, Ramsey Clark, John N. Mitchell, and Richard G. Kleindienst, all of whom said warrantless searches in national security matters were commonplace and understood not to be illegal. Mitchell and Kleindienst denied they had authorized any of the break-ins at issue in the trial. (The Bureau used a national security justification for the searches because it alleged the Weather Underground was in the employ of Cuba.[60])
The jury returned guilty verdicts on November 6, 1980. Although the charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, Felt was fined $5,000 and Miller was fined $3,500.[57] Writing an OpEd piece in The New York Times a week after the conviction, attorney Roy Cohn claimed that Felt and Miller were being used as scapegoats by the Carter administration and it was an unfair prosecution. Cohn wrote the break ins were the “final dirty trick” of the Nixon administration, and there had been no “personal motive” to their actions.[61] The New York Times praised the convictions, saying “the case has established that zeal is no excuse for violating the Constitution.”[62]
Felt and Miller appealed their verdicts.[63]
Pardon
President Ronald Reagan pardoned Felt and Miller.
In a phone call on January 30, 1981, Edwin Meese encouraged President Ronald Reagan to issue a pardon. After further encouragement from Felt’s former colleagues, President Reagan pardoned Felt and Miller. The pardon was signed on March 26, but was not announced to the public until April 15, 1981.
In the pardon, Reagan wrote:
During their long careers, Mark Felt and Edward Miller served the Federal Bureau of Investigation and our nation with great distinction. To punish them further—after 3 years of criminal prosecution proceedings—would not serve the ends of justice.
Their convictions in the U.S. District Court, on appeal at the time I signed the pardons, grew out of their good-faith belief that their actions were necessary to preserve the security interests of our country. The record demonstrates that they acted not with criminal intent, but in the belief that they had grants of authority reaching to the highest levels of government.[64]
Nixon sent Felt and Miller bottles of champagne with the note “Justice ultimately prevails.”[65] The New York Times disapproved in an editorial, saying that the United States “deserved better than a gratuitous revision of the record by the President.”[66] Felt and Miller said they would seek repayment of their legal fees from the government.
The prosecutor at the trial, John W. Nields Jr., said, “I would warrant that whoever is responsible for the pardons did not read the record of the trial and did not know the facts of the case.” Nields also complained that the White House did not consult with the prosecutors in the case, which was contrary to the usual practice when a pardon was under consideration.[63]
Felt said,
“I feel very excited and just so pleased that I can hardly contain myself. I am most grateful to the President. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to thank him. It’s just like having a heavy burden lifted off your back. This case has been dragging on for five years.”
At a press conference the day of the announcement, Miller said, “I certainly owe the Gipper one.”[67] Carter Attorney General Griffin Bell said he did not object to the pardons, as the convictions had upheld constitutional principles.
Despite their pardons, Felt and Miller won permission from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to appeal their convictions so as to remove it from their record and to prevent it from being used in civil suits by victims of the break-ins they had ordered.[68] Ultimately, the court restored Felt’s law license in 1982, based on Reagan’s pardon. In June 1982, Felt and Miller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s security and terrorism subcommittee. They said that the restrictions placed on the FBI by Attorney General Edward H. Levi were threatening the country’s safety.[69]
Your butt is out the door, buddy.
I think you sank your own ship by wanting to get Trump so badly you lost it.
I had no idea we had royalty playing king of America at the DOJ? Sure hope this little lord doesn’t get a flat tire in flyover USA........
What’s telling about the FIB is how rabid they have been in pursuing all leads against Trump and planting news in the press while doing everything in their power to cut Hitlery Rotten Clinton slack including finding her ‘not guilty’ before questioning, then not taking notes while questioning her. Lies, what are those? Oh, the FBI can lie?
When McCabe’s “retirement” was announced a few months ago, didn’t he say something like he would “burn this place down” if he lost his pension?
If that is all he has in the “burning” Department, I would have to say it was a dud. He needs to forced to go before a non-DC grand jury and an honest prosecutor ASAP. Maybe the threat of a Long jail sentence will flip him into telling the truth against the other rats... One’s self-survival instincts can do remarkable things when put to the test.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
