Former FBI Deputy Director Is Faulted in Scathing Inspector General Report

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department inspector general delivered to Congress on Friday a scathing report that accused Andrew G. McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, of violating the federal law enforcement agency’s media policy and then repeatedly misleading investigators about his actions.

The inspector general found that McCabe, 50, had lacked candor on four occasions when questioned by investigators and faulted his decision to authorize the disclosure of information to a reporter with The Wall Street Journal in October 2016 as self-serving.

In a point-by-point rebuttal of the report, McCabe said he had full authorization to share this information with the news media as deputy director and that he did not intentionally mislead investigators. He also argued that his decision to release information about an investigation into the financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation was justified and in the public’s interest.

McCabe, a 21-year FBI veteran, was fired in March after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected an appeal that would have let him retire with a full government pension.

At the time, Sessions said that McCabe had repeatedly shown a lack of candor under oath. McCabe disputed that, saying his firing was meant to undermine the special counsel investigation being led by Robert Mueller, and to discredit him as a witness.

The report’s release, which had been anticipated for months, comes at a time when the FBI and the Justice Department are under intense scrutiny by Republicans on Capitol Hill and by President Donald Trump for their continuing investigation of possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump, who considers the Russia investigation a “witch hunt,” has fumed in recent days after an FBI raid of his personal lawyer’s office and hotel room in New York.

The inspector general’s report also provides the president and his allies with a convenient counterpoint to a new memoir by James Comey, the FBI director Trump fired last May. The book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” is scheduled to be released Tuesday, but details began to trickle out Thursday night, including pointed criticisms of Trump.

On Friday afternoon, Trump, who has sought to tarnish the reputation of his investigators, pounced on the report on McCabe, calling it a “total disaster.”

“He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey - McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!” he wrote on Twitter.

Michael R. Bromwich, a lawyer for McCabe, replied to the president’s tweet, writing in one of his own that his client was considering filing a defamation suit. “Stay tuned,” he wrote.

The inspector general report was unsparing in its assessment of McCabe. The review accused McCabe of lacking candor when he spoke to Comey shortly after the October 2016 article was published, when he spoke with FBI investigators and then in two conversations with investigators for the inspector general.

Lack of candor, or knowingly providing false information, is a fireable offense at the FBI.

The inspector general said that when investigators asked whether McCabe had instructed a pair of aides to provide information in October 2016 to Devlin Barrett, then a Wall Street Journal reporter, McCabe said he did not authorize the disclosure and did not know who did.

McCabe subsequently said he approved the FBI’s contact with the reporter, according to the review.

The newspaper article delved into a dispute between FBI and Justice Department officials over how to proceed in the investigation into the Clinton Foundation. It revealed a meeting during which Justice Department officials declined to authorize subpoenas or grand jury activity. The article said that some FBI agents thought that McCabe had slowed the investigation.

But The Journal, citing anonymous sources including “one person close to Mr. McCabe,” detailed a tense conversation with a senior Justice Department official in which McCabe insisted that the FBI had the authority to press ahead with the investigation.

The inspector general concluded that that engagement initiated by McCabe had not been justified under the media policy of the FBI and Justice Department and constituted misconduct.

Specifically, the report said, providing an anonymous quote about the content of a conversation between McCabe and another department official “served only to advance McCabe’s personal interests and not the public interest, as required by FBI policy.”

McCabe disputed that conclusion, saying that he took the steps he did to protect the FBI’s reputation. In his interactions with investigators, he said that he had not intended to mislead and in one case reached back out to the inspector general’s office to correct earlier comments.

The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is expected to release a larger report in the coming weeks about the FBI’s actions during the 2016 election.

The report Friday generated split reaction on Capitol Hill. Top Republicans said that it clearly justified McCabe’s firing, and highlighted the importance of truthfulness in federal law enforcement. Democrats, while not disputing that point, warned that the report should not be connected to the Russia investigation.

Earlier Friday, Christopher A. Wray, the director of the FBI, formally elevated David L. Bowdich, the bureau’s third in command, to succeed McCabe as deputy director. Bowdich, the former top agent in the Los Angeles Field Office, has been the acting deputy director since January.