by Jerry Dunleavy
Newly-declassified memos written by disgraced FBI official Andrew McCabe shine new light on how he kept the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation alive during a critical period in the first half of 2017 before he got it handed off to a special counsel.
The eight memos penned by McCabe, most of which had never been released until earlier this month, span his discussions and meetings (including with President Donald Trump) held from January 24, 2017 to May 21, 2017 — a critical time period ranging from just before the FBI sprung an interview on retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to just after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. The memos were more fully declassified through efforts by Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month.
McCabe was a stalwart ally of since-fired FBI Director James Comey, coordinated closely with since-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok on the launch and the conduct of the flawed and politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and relied heavily upon disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page as his close confidante.
Pushed the Steele dossier
McCabe and Comey had pushed in December 2016 to include British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked dossier in the body of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on alleged Russian meddling, but they were thwarted by the NSA and CIA. The dossier was eventually included in an annex to the assessment.
By early 2017, McCabe and the FBI knew that the Steele dossier was baseless. The FBI had offered Steele an “incentive” in October 2016 of up to $1 million if he could prove the allegations in his discredited anti-Trump dossier, but the former MI6 agent was unable to back up his claims. An FBI spreadsheet from December 2016 showed nothing of any substance from the dossier could be verified. The FBI had unearthed nothing derogatory on Flynn. And an early 2017 interview of Steele’s main source — Igor Danchenko — undercut the dossier’s collusion claims.
Yet despite the huge setbacks for Crossfire Hurricane, McCabe’s newly-declassified memos show how McCabe facilitated the FBI’s targeting of Flynn, met with Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about the Flynn allegations, refused to publicly shoot down false media stories on collusion, opened a collusion investigation into Trump himself after Comey was fired, kept the Trump-Russia investigation alive and escalated it as the acting FBI director, helped successfully push for a special counsel to take the reins, and more.
McCabe did not respond to a request for comment sent to him by Just the News through his LinkedIn.
January 24, 2017 — Mike Flynn’s call with McCabe
McCabe created his first memo related to a discussion he had with Flynn just before he was interviewed by FBI agents on January 24, 2017. Versions of the memo were previously released with various redactions in 2019 and 2020, but the version released this month has the fewest redactions yet.
The FBI had been plotting how to potentially prosecute Flynn related to his December 2016 call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, including potentially under the Logan Act.
McCabe said that “I told LTG Flynn that I had a sensitive matter to discuss. I explained that in light of the significant media coverage and public discussion about his recent contacts with Russian representatives, that Director Comey and I felt that we needed to have two of our agents sit down with the General and hear from him the details of those conversations. LTG Flynn asked if I was referring to his contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the United States, and indicated that I was.”
McCabe said in his memo that Flynn explained that he had been trying to “build relationships” with the Russians, and that he had calls in which he “exchanged condolences.” McCabe said Flynn then stated that McCabe probably knew what was said in these calls because “you listen to everything they say.”
McCabe said of his talk with Flynn that “I reiterated that in light of everything that has been said about these contacts, the important thing now was for us to hear directly from him what he said and how he felt about the conversations.”
Comey later admitted in 2018 that he took advantage of the chaos in the early days of Trump’s administration when he sent FBI special agents Peter Strzok and Joseph Pientka to talk to Flynn.
“I sent them,” Comey said to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, prompting laughter in the audience. “Something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in … a more organized administration. In the George W. Bush administration, for example, or the Obama administration.”
“In both of those administrations, there was process, and so, if the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official, you would work through the White House counsel, and there’d be discussions and approvals and who would be there, and I thought, it’s early enough — let’s just send a couple guys over,” Comey added.
Strzok overjoyed that Flynn case not closed
The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case in May 2020 stated that Strzok learned in early January 2017 that the Flynn case had not been closed despite the lack of evidence for keeping it open, and relayed the “serendipitously good” news to McCabe’s special assistant Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an affair. Strzok remarked that “our utter incompetence actually helps us.” Strzok then instructed FBI agents to “keep it open for now” at the behest of “the 7th Floor” of the bureau.
The DOJ said that “the FBI kept open its counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn based solely on his calls with Kislyak — the only new information to arise since the FBI’s determination to close the case.” McCabe did not tell Flynn that he was being interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation targeting the Trump campaign.
McCabe said in his memo that “LTG Flynn questioned how so much information had been made public and asked if we thought it had been leaked” and “I replied that we were quite concerned about what we perceived as significant leaks and that we were in the process of completing a referral to the Department of Justice requesting authority to initiate a leak investigation.” McCabe said that “I further indicated that these cases were hard to prove but that we thought the significance of this situation demanded a thorough review.”
The leaks begin
Flynn’s communications with Ambassador Kislyak were leaked to the media in early 2017. Republicans have alleged since 2017 that Obama-era officials improperly unmasked associates of then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign during the Russia collusion investigation. Democrats defended the intelligence-gathering process.
A Washington Post column in mid-January 2017 contained classified details that set off a media frenzy. Citing a “senior U.S. government official,” it said Flynn and Kislyak spoke on the phone in December 2016, the day former President Barack Obama announced actions against Russia, and suggested Flynn had violated the archaic Logan Act. A follow-up article by the Washington Post in early February 2017 revealed classified details from Flynn’s monitored calls with Kislyak, citing “nine current and former officials” in “senior positions at multiple agencies.”
John Bash, the U.S. attorney tasked in 2020 with investigating the “unmasking” scandal, concluded that Flynn’s name had not even been hidden to begin with when the FBI shared information across the Obama administration.
The leakers of the Flynn calls were never found.
McCabe said in his memo that he told Flynn that it would not be a good idea for Flynn to have a lawyer present when he was questioned by the FBI that afternoon.
“I explained to LTG Flynn that my desire was to have two of my agents interview him as quickly, quietly, and discretely as possible. He agreed and offered to meet with the agents today,” McCabe wrote. “I explained that I thought the quickest way to get this done was to have a conversation between him and the agents only. I further stated that if LTG Flynn wished to include anyone else in the meeting, like the White House Counsel for instance, that would need to involve the Department of Justice. He stated that this would not be necessary and agreed to meet with the agents without any additional participants.”
William Barnett, the FBI agent who handled Flynn’s case in 2016 and 2017, called the Trump-Russia investigation “Collusion Clue” and argued many investigators were out to “get Trump.”
Top FBI officials had discussed the possibility of prosecuting Flynn for lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians as agents planned how to conduct their January 2017 interview of the Trump national security adviser, bureau notes show.
“I agreed yesterday that we shouldn’t show Flynn [REDACTED] if he didn’t admit” but “I thought about it last night and I believe we should rethink this,” Bill Priestap, the FBI’s head of counterintelligence, wrote in January 2017. “What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
Obama White House kept tabs on Flynn
An email that Obama national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself detailing an early January 2017 Oval Office meeting was declassified in 2020, revealing just how focused the outgoing Obama administration was on Flynn.
“Director Comey affirmed that he is processing ‘by the book’ as it relates to law enforcement. From a national security perspective, Comey said he does have some concerns that incoming NSA Flynn is speaking frequently with Russian ambassador Kislyak. Comey said that could be an issue as it relates to sharing sensitive information,” Rice wrote.
Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told Mueller’s team that she first learned the FBI possessed and was investigating recordings of Flynn’s conversations following an early January 2017 national security meeting at the White House, and that it was Obama — not Comey — who told her about it.
Obama “started by saying that he had ‘learned of the information about Flynn’ and his conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak,” Yates said, according to FBI notes. “Obama specified he did not want any additional information on the matter but was seeking information on whether the White House should be treating Flynn any differently.”
Yates told investigators that “at that point,” she “had no idea what the President was talking about.” She “recalled Comey mentioning the Logan Act” but could not remember if Comey specifically said there was an “investigation.”
Handwritten notes by Strzok released by the Justice Department in 2020 seem to quote then-Vice President Joe Biden directly raising the “Logan Act” related to Flynn, according to an apparent conversation Strzok had with Comey after an early January 2017 White House meeting. Strzok wrote that Comey said the Flynn-Kislyak calls “appear legit.” Obama emphasized that “the right people” should look into Flynn.
The task fell to Comey, McCabe, and Strzok.
The Flynn-Kislyak call and the FBI interview
The transcript of the call between Flynn and Kislyak — which occurred on December 29, 2016 — was declassified in 2020.
One transcript portion stated: “Flynn wants to convey the following [to Moscow]: Do not allow this [Obama] administration to box us in right now! Kislyak says they have conveyed it very clearly.”
“So, depending on what actions they take over this current issue of cyber stuff, where they are looking like they are going to dismiss some number of Russians out of the country. I understand all that and I understand that the information that they have and all that. But I ask Russia to do is to not, if anything, I know you have to have some sort of action, to only make it reciprocal; don’t go any further than you have to because I don’t want us to get into something that have to escalate to tit-for-tat. Do you follow me?” the transcript says Flynn said, with the transcript adding that “Kislyak says he understands what Flynn is saying, but Flynn might appreciate the sentiments that are raging now in Moscow.”
The transcript stated that Flynn said that “I really do not want us to get into the situation where we everybody goes back and forth and everybody had to be a tough guy here. We don’t need that right now. We need cool heads to prevail. And we need to be very steady about what we are going to do because we have absolutely a common threat in the Middle East.”
“Kislyak agrees. Now when FSB and GRU are sanctioned and Kislyak asks himself, does it mean that the U.S. is not willing to work on terrorist threats, Kislyak poses a question. Flynn says, yes. Kislyak says he heard Flynn and he will try people in Moscow to understand. Flynn repeats asking to reciprocate moderately,” the transcript stated.
The transcript added that Flynn also said, “Let’s keep this at even-kill level; then when we come in, we will have a better conversation where we are going to go regarding our relationship.”
The FBI’s notes of the interview of Flynn by Strzok and Pientka on January 24, 2017 were also released in a further declassified form this month. The interview occurred just a few hours after McCabe’s call with Flynn.
The FBI notes state: “FLYNN expanded that he had no particular affinity for Russia, but that KISLYAK was his counterpart, and maintaining trusted relationships within foreign governments is important.”
The notes state that “the interviewing agents asked FLYNN if he recalled any conversation with KISLYAK surrounding the expulsion of Russian diplomats or the closing of Russian properties in response to Russian hacking activities surrounding the election. FLYNN stated that he did not.”
The FBI notes also state that “the interviewing agents asked FLYNN if he recalled any conversation with KISLYAK in which the expulsions were discussed, where FLYNN might have encouraged KISLYAK not to escalate the situation, to keep the Russian response reciprocal,” or not to engage in a “tit-for-tat.” The FBI notes say that Flynn responded, “Not really. I don’t remember. It wasn’t ‘Don’t do anything.’”
Strzok was a key player throughout the FBI’s deeply flawed Crossfire Hurricane investigation — including writing the opening communication that launched the inquiry.
Pientka had conducted the FBI’s first counterintelligence briefing of then-candidate Trump in August 2016 at its New York field office — and the briefing had been used as a “pretext” to gather evidence on him and Flynn, according to 2019 testimony from DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz.
“They sent a supervisory agent to the briefing from the Crossfire Hurricane team, and that agent prepared a report to the file of the briefing about what Mr. Trump and Mr. Flynn said,” Horowitz testified. “So the agent was actually doing the briefing but also using it for the purpose of investigation.”
It was Strzok who signed off on Pientka’s summary of that pretextual briefing.
The interview by Strzok and Pientka with Flynn in January 2017 would soon be leveraged by McCabe and the FBI to facilitate the firing of Flynn — and to underpin a prosecution.
Trump DOJ later points out flaws with FBI’s Flynn interview
The Trump Justice Department later pointed out significant problems with how McCabe and the rest of the FBI leadership had handled the Flynn affair.
“FBI Director Comey took the position that the FBI would not notify the incoming Trump administration of the Flynn-Kislyak communications. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and other senior DOJ officials took the contrary view and believed that the incoming administration should be notified,” the DOJ said in 2020. “Deputy Attorney General Yates and another senior DOJ official became ‘frustrated’ when Director Comey’s justifications for withholding the information from the Trump administration repeatedly ‘morphed,’ vacillating from the potential compromise of a ‘counterintelligence’ investigation to the protection of a purported ‘criminal’ investigation.”
The DOJ said in 2020 that the morning of January 24, 2017 — right around when McCabe held his call with Flynn — Yates contacted Comey “to demand that the FBI notify the White House of the communications” but that “Comey did not initially return her call” — and when Comey called Yates back later that day, Comey “advised her that the FBI agents were already on their way to the White House to interview Mr. Flynn.” Yates said she was “flabbergasted” and “dumbfounded” while other senior DOJ officials “hit the roof” upon hearing of this development, given that “an interview of Flynn should have been coordinated with DOJ.”
But the machinations by McCabe and Comey ensured the FBI interview of Flynn happened the way they wanted.
Strzok and Pientka “didn’t show him the transcripts” of his calls when interviewing Flynn, the DOJ said, “nor did the agents give, at any point, warnings that making false statements would be a crime.”
And the DOJ said that “after the interview, the FBI agents expressed uncertainty as to whether Mr. Flynn had lied.” The DOJ wrote that Strzok and Pientka “had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.” And even Comey had his doubts about whether Flynn had even lied, saying, “I don’t know. I think there is an argument to be made he lied. It is a close one.”
“With its counterintelligence investigation no longer justifiably predicated, the communications between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak — the FBI’s sole basis for resurrecting the investigation on January 4, 2017 — did not warrant either continuing that existing counterintelligence investigation or opening a new criminal investigation,” the Trump DOJ determined in 2020. “The calls were entirely appropriate on their face. Mr. Flynn has never disputed that the calls were made. Indeed, Mr. Flynn, as the former Director of Defense Intelligence Agency, would have readily expected that the FBI had known of the calls — and told FBI Deputy Director McCabe as much.”
The Trump DOJ added: “The Government does not believe it could prove that Mr. Flynn knowingly and willfully made a false statement beyond a reasonable doubt. … The Government is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue.”
Yet the FBI interview with Flynn would help end his brief tenure as national security adviser, and would result in his prosecution.
January 31, 2017 — McCabe talks to Bannon in the West Wing
McCabe wrote another memo about a meeting in the West Wing, accompanied by FBI official Bill Priestap, with then-White House official Steve Bannon on January 31, 2017.
The McCabe memo stated that “the purpose of the meeting was to discuss a piece of intelligence regarding Eugene Chin Yu, who claimed to be under consideration by Mr. Bannon for a position as Special Envoy to North Korea or the United States Ambassador to South Korea.” But the meeting soon led to a discussion about Trump and Comey.
“Mr. Bannon requested that he be given an opportunity to speak to me privately, and Mr. Priestap left the room. Mr. Bannon then mentioned that President Trump told him that he had a positive experience dining with Director Comey last Friday night and he inquired about whether the Director mentioned it to me,” McCabe wrote. “I replied that Director Comey was also very positive about their engagement. Mr. Bannon stated that he thought it was important to put the two men together to find out if Director Comey wished to stay in his position and whether President Trump wanted to retain him.”
McCabe later told Mueller’s team in September 2017 that he had essentially lied to Bannon, with the FBI’s notes of its interview with McCabe stating that “McCabe knew Comey did not have a good time, but answered that way in order to ‘move the issue off the table.’”
“Mr. Bannon explained that President Trump wished to be very supportive of law enforcement and to the FBI specifically Mr. Bannon was eager to identify opportunities for President Trump to visit the FBI, or to participate in FBI events, in an effort to publicly support the organization,” McCabe’s memo of the conversation stated. “Mr. Bannon pointed to the President’s recent speech at CIA headquarters as an example. He said President Trump would probably be quite interested in seeing the FBI Training Academy at Quantico, Virginia, and possibly could participate in a New Agent’s graduation. I told Mr. Bannon that I appreciated his and the President’s interest and indicated that I would discuss the matter with Director Comey.”
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Jerry Dunleavy is the chief investigative correspondent at Just the News.
Photo “James Comey” by Brookings Institution. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
