McCabe lawyer asks Justice Department to drop criminal charges

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for a former FBI official, Andrew McCabe, on Friday urged US prosecutors to abandon their politically sensitive case, citing reports that they may have trouble getting money. lawsuits.

The US Department of Justice has been investigating McCabe, former FBI leader # 2, for more than a year and a half on charges of misleading internal investigators over his decision to share internal communications with a reporter at the height of the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutors and senior officials of the Department of Justice, including Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, have recommended going ahead with criminal charges, according to sources close to the investigation. .

But they could have met another obstacle. The Washington Post reported Thursday that a federal grand jury charged with the investigation had been recalled to review evidence but had left without handing over an indictment.

Grand juries are used in the US legal system to assess the validity of possible criminal charges in major cases.

In order to obtain an indictment, US prosecutors must generally convince the grand jury that the crime was committed, which is a less stringent legal standard than that required to obtain a verdict of guilty at trial. The proceedings are conducted in secret.

The Department of Justice and the District Attorney's Office of the District of Columbia, which manages the file, declined to comment.

In an email to reporters, McCabe's lawyer, Michael Bromwich, urged US lawyer Jesse Liu to submit a report on whether or not the grand jury had recommended criminal charges.

He also said that prosecutors should not try to get a second time the approval of the grand jury if they failed.

"If the grand jury decided not to approve the charges, it did not find a probable cause. Therefore, it is simply not reasonable to believe that a jury of first instance would convict Mr. McCabe, "wrote Bromwich.

McCabe was fired in March 2018, just hours before his retirement, after his internal watchdog had issued a report claiming that he had misled investigators who were trying to determine whether he had incorrectly shared information with a reporter during the 2016 presidential election.

McCabe stated that he attempted to answer the questions about the incident honestly and clarify his answers when he thought he was misunderstood.

McCabe has endured years of criticism from President Donald Trump after playing a key role in investigating the links of the Trump campaign with Russia in the 2016 elections.

McCabe said these attacks were part of an effort to undermine law enforcement and intelligence professionals. He sued the Justice Ministry, arguing that he had been fired for political reasons.