Criminal Justice & the Rule of Law

Getting to the Bottom of the (Attempted) McCabe Prosecution

Scott R. Anderson, Benjamin Wittes
Tuesday, September 24, 2019, 11:20 AM

One of the great political mysteries of the last few weeks involves what has happened to the possible criminal indictment of former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who is accused of having made false statements regarding his role in certain leaks to the media relating to the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal.

Then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Feb. 2017 (Source: Flickr/United States Attorneys)

Published by The Lawfare Institute
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One of the great political mysteries of the last few weeks involves what has happened to the possible criminal indictment of former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who is accused of having made false statements regarding his role in certain leaks to the media relating to the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal. The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had green-lit an indictment as early as September 12. But a subsequent grand jury hearing passed without any announcement of an indictment, leaving major questions about what happened at the hearing and whether the Justice Department will continue to try and move forward with his prosecution.


McCabe’s lawyer, Michael Bromwich, released a statement indicating that the defense team had heard the grand jury had not returned an indictment, and raising questions about whether a violation of federal rules around grand jury secrecy had taken place.




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Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.

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