Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired Friday night.

Perhaps until Friday you didn’t know much about McCabe. If you only watch the mainstream media your main takeaway is “Andrew McCabe is a dedicated public servant targeted by President Trump because Trump wants to discredit the Mueller investigation. Specifically, McCabe can back James Comey’s account of being fired to obstruct the Russia Collusion investigation. Sure, he may have leaked, but everybody leaks in Washington. He may even have misled investigators. But firing McCabe just two days before he was eligible for a full pension was vengeful. Jeff Sessions just want to make Trump happy.”

If that’s what you know, you don’t know McCabe.

A Quick Refresher

We’ve written before about all the areas where McCabe has raised suspicion. Here’s a quick list. Many remain under active investigation by the DOJ Inspector General.

• While overseeing the Hillary email case, McCabe’s wife was recruited and received $1.2 million via longtime Clinton operative Terry McAuliffe to run for the Virginia state legislature. McCabe did not recuse himself from Clinton cases until months after the email investigation ended.
• Remember all those Hillary State Dept. emails found on convicted pervert Anthony Weiner’s computer? McCabe tried burying their discovery until after the election. He waited nearly a month to notify James Comey. And that was only because agents in New York were threatening to go public.
• McCabe was deeply involved in the effort to use the bogus Steele Dossier to get FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.
• But when did he learn Hillary paid for the dossier? He told House investigators he couldn’t remember. (Apparently he didn’t keep notes on that. See below.)
• The leak that got him fired involved his role in investigating the Clinton Foundation. The Wall Street Journal article quoted FBI agents who claimed McCabe blocked their efforts. McCabe’s leak was to counter that allegation.
• It was in “Andy”‘s office that FBI lawyer Lisa Page and Peter Strzok first discussed a “plan” that seems to have involved efforts to stop the election of Donald Trump. This was followed by an “insurance policy” to be unleashed after the election.
• McCabe reportedly said during a video conference that “they” were “going to (expletive) Flynn, then (expletive) Trump.”
• And so he did. It was McCabe along with former DOJ assistant AG Sally Yates who arranged the White House meeting between National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and two FBI agents. Flynn thought the meeting was routine. Instead it was an interrogation on his contacts with Russians. Although the agents believed Flynn told the truth, McCabe and Yates would push case that Flynn had lied.
• McCabe had a personal vendetta against Flynn. Flynn had defended supervisory special agent Robyn Grist after McCabe tried to destroy her career. Grist’s sin? Filing a sexual harassment claim.
• Grist, who ended up forced out of the Bureau by McCabe, claims McCabe gave her a stand-down order the night of Benghazi.
• A top FBI agent assigned to share with other agencies what the Bureau had discovered about the Benghazi attack says he was ordered by McCabe to not call it a terrorist attack, even though the Bureau already knew which terror group was involved.

Did you see the movie 13 Hours, about the Benghazi attack? One of the heroes of that night, Kris “Tanto” Paranto, celebrated McCabe’s firing. Tanto claims McCabe and Comey had tried “to pin excessive force use on myself and my team after coming home from Benghazi.”

https://twitter.com/KrisParonto/status/975112539796320256

Sure, in the court of law there’s a presumption of innocence. But, let’s be honest: It takes a lot of spray paint for the media to turn McCabe’s hat white.

McCabe Reacts, But Did He Finger Comey?

Soon after his firing, Andrew McCabe published a lengthy, angry diatribe blaming his ouster on Donald Trump. So much for the apolitical Office of Professional Responsibility, which actually recommended his firing. Interestingly, the OPR didn’t fired him for any of the above-mentioned antics against Trump. Those are separate allegations. So why launch a hostile political attack on Donald Trump when the subject isn’t Donald Trump? Especially when you’re accused elsewhere of hostile political attacks on Trump?

More interestingly, law professor Jonathan Turley says McCabe’s statement may mean trouble for former Director Comey. McCabe says Comey was “aware of the interaction with the reporter.” Comey had said under oath he had never authorized anyone at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation. Liberal legal icon Alan Dershowitz agrees with Turley. He told Fox Business this morning: “I do think that that should be the subject of an investigation to determine who was telling the truth because McCabe and Comey seem to have stated under oath, very inconsistent points.”

He’s Got Memos!

McCabe kept detailed notes of his meetings with President Trump. Just like James Comey broke his usual habit and kept detailed notes of his Trump contacts. McCabe has given those memos to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Comey leaked his (classified) notes to the New York Times to get Mueller named Special Counsel. So bully on McCabe for at least not leaking that.

Trump trolled McCabe Sunday morning.

Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe, but he never took notes when he was with me. I don’t believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018

Does Trump have a point? How long after meetings did McCabe wait to write down the notes? Was it unusual for McCabe to take notes? If not, why now? Where are his notes on the Hillary investigation? Did McCabe and Comey coordinate their notes? Coordinate what they’d say on the notes? How are we to know whether the “insurance policy” mentioned by Andy’s cohorts Strzok and Page included efforts to entrap the President with his private statements … or, more accurately, their characterizations of Trump’s conversations? Do we have any reason to suspect McCabe would not accurately reflect what someone said?

We left something off the above list. Circa‘s Sara Carter reported in January, “I have been told tonight by a number of sources … that McCabe may have asked FBI agents to actually change their 302s.” 302s are the official notes FBI agents write up of interviews. A report to summarize their interview with a subject. Carter says the doctoring allegation is being investigated by DOJ Inspector General. Controversial journalist Mike Cernovich tweeted a similar charge in mid-February.

https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/965395893246615552

Perhaps this is one of the false stories McCabe says he has been subjected to the past 18 months. Or this is another reason Michael Flynn’s new judge has ordered Robert Mueller to hand over all material from the Flynn investigation. (And, by the way, why Mueller signed off on it, despite Flynn’s plea deal precluding any new evidence being introduced.)

Former general counsel for the National Security Agency Stewart Baker, shared his view of the firing at the Lawfare blog. He summarizes:

It is fair to conclude that McCabe’s family ties to Clinton’s circle of supporters created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for McCabe—whether he was investigating Clinton or her opponent. More pointedly, if McCabe intervened personally to construct a perjury trap for the Trump administration’s national security adviser, there’s reason to believe that the conflict was more than just apparent. If nothing else, McCabe’s blind spot for the apparent conflict —and the understandable mistrust it created in the Trump White House — makes McCabe’s departure entirely appropriate.

Truth and Justice

Writing about McCabe and the unfolding evidence of corruption at the highest levels of the DOJ, FBI and Obama administration gives me no pleasure. Especially with the FBI. It’s the F-B-I! Those of a certain age remember the old TV show with Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Or The X-Files. I want to believe. (Pop cultural reference intentional.)

I’d much rather believe this FBI agent McCabe was a Fox Mulder, not a fox in the hen house. But we have to go where the evidence goes. I believe that the assorted investigations, from the DOJ IG, to the Congressional investigations, even the Mueller investigation, will bring Truth to light.

My question is just how far the media and the democrats will continue to go obscuring that light.

McCabe closed his statement, “I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.” May we all join the call that justice not be deterred.

As Solomon said, “When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers.” (Proverbs 21:15)

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, and co-author of the upcoming book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. It’s out May 21 from Regnery publishing, but is available for pre-order today. Right now. This instant.