by Chuck Ross
The FBI investigated former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in March 2017 for an alleged unauthorized leak to the media regarding former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and President Donald Trump, according to documents released Monday.
The alleged leak, which has not previously been reported, occurred in early February 2017, shortly before Flynn was fired as national security advisor for lying about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador.
According to the FBI documents, the FBI’s office of public affairs received a complaint “regarding a media leak involving a statement overheard in early February 2017.”
“Specifically, the alleged comments were made by DD A. G. McCabe and pertained to General Michael T. Flynn and the POTUS,” reads the FBI document, which the bureau released as part of a trove of documents related to an internal investigation of McCabe.
The investigation, which was into the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, appears to have been opened on March 20, 2017.
The FBI became aware of the complaint on Feb. 21, 2017, reads the document, which was prepared by the FBI’s internal investigations section.
The documents do not reveal the nature of the information that McCabe allegedly leaked or what determination the FBI made.
McCabe, who was fired March 16, is known to have had a direct role in the FBI’s investigation of Flynn. He reportedly ordered a team led by FBI agent Peter Strzok to interview Flynn at the White House. It is during that Jan. 24, 2017, interview that Flynn admits he lied about his conversations in December 2016 with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time. Flynn, who was fired on Feb. 13, 2017, is awaiting sentencing in a case being handled by the special counsel’s office.
McCabe was fired from the FBI after the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General determined that he lacked candor during interviews about media leaks to The Wall Street Journal in October 2016 regarding the Hillary Clinton investigation. His case is reportedly before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.
McCabe’s attorney, Michael Bromwich, did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
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Chuck Ross is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Chuck on Twitter
