REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan
Andrew McCabe details the filing of civil forfeiture complaints in June.
The Department of Justice's inspector general released on Friday findings from an internal investigation into fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year as the Office of the Inspector General was putting together the report, which centers on his approval of disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's Hillary Clinton email probe.
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, concluded in Friday's report that McCabe was not forthcoming during his office's review. When Horowitz informed the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility about his findings last month, it recommended Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire McCabe, which Sessions then did last month. McCabe's ouster came two days before he was set to retire.
The Wall Street Journal article at the center of the OIG's inquiry into McCabe was published on October 30, 2016, two days after then-FBI Director James Comey announced in a letter to Congress that the bureau was reopening its investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server.
The article was a highly detailed account of internal strife within the top ranks of the DOJ about how to proceed after FBI agents investigating former New York congressman Anthony Weiner discovered 650,000 emails on his laptop that could have been sent to or from Clinton's private email server.
The reporter who wrote The Journal's article, Devlin Barrett, was in touch with two top FBI officials on the phone two days before the story broke, according to text messages released in February. The officials were FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who often worked with McCabe, and then-FBI spokesman Michael Kortan.
While law-enforcement officials often speak to the press on background in order to provide more complete details about an ongoing story, they are prohibited from revealing information about ongoing investigations, like the Clinton email probe.
McCabe stepped down as deputy director in January after FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed him on the impending OIG report about his conduct.
The deputy director's ouster came following a string of public attacks President Donald Trump leveled against him, accusing him of putting his thumb on the scale in favor of Clinton.