It's a very dumb day in Washington, DC. The attorney for fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe is reportedly threatening to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over "defamation" and the supposedly wrongful termination of his client's employment at the Bureau. This would have been an audacious, long-shot maneuver a few weeks ago, but based on what we've learned in recent days, it looks a lot more like a totally ludicrous stunt. I suppose that once you've determined that your best play is to cast yourself as a martyr, you've got to see the charade through to the bitter end:
#BREAKING: McCabe to sue Trump admin for defamation and wrongful termination https://t.co/ImGkjpxu3T pic.twitter.com/gk02flD2Ll
— The Hill (@thehill) April 20, 2018
Hey, maybe McCabe figures -- probably correctly -- that he can raise even more money from liberals by promising to use their cash to sue Trump. The Spite Wars are a source of bottomless motivation, it seems. Sure, Trump has hurled insults at McCabe on Twitter for many months, but the idea that a public figure like McCabe would win a libel or slander judgment (proving "actual malice" is hard to do) against the president is, let's just say, far-fetched. Incidentally, might Trump decide to abandon his dumb musings about changing libel laws if he comes to learn that the existing legal standards protect...him, as much as anybody? As for the "wrongful termination" claim, that would take real cojones. The Justice Department's nonpartisan Inspector General has determined that McCabe wrongfully leaked information to the press in his capacity has a high-ranking FBI official, then lied about that leak on at least four occasions, including to a number of federal investigators. He did so "knowingly and intentionally" in at least one case, according to the IG report.
These findings were relayed to the current FBI Director, who promptly placed McCabe on leave, and to the Bureau's ethics watchdog, which recommended McCabe be fired. That recommendation was acted upon. Not only that, lying about unauthorized leaking to the feds is a crime, so the IG just referred McCabe to the DOJ for a potential criminal prosecution. That may never come to pass (leaking and lying apparently seems to go unpunished quite a lot lately), but the criminal referral is yet another nail in the coffin of any potential claim of "wrongful termination"; indeed, McCabe was quite rightly terminated, and may be better served by training his focus on staying out of prison at this point. For these reasons, I suspect this is a bluff by McCabe's lawyer, who might nevertheless see some utility in beating the drums for more donations from credulous Resisters. Some people deserve to get fleeced. Speaking of former FBI officials happily separating lefties from their dollars, it looks like James Comey has now upset McCabe, too. Might Comey be willing to testify against McCabe, if it comes to that? Maybe, he says. Have your schadenfreude-sprinkled popcorn ready, folks. And while we're on the subject of Comey, here is my analysis from this morning about his newly-released and long-awaited memos documenting his early meetings with Trump:
There's a good chance Comey compromised classified material with his self-interested leaking. As Katie mentioned earlier, there were seven total Comey memos on this subject, four of which have been determined to contain classified information. Comey's buddy at Columbia University -- the middleman for the post-firing leaks -- has stated that the ex-FBI chief furnished him with four memos. Simple subtraction therefore dictates that at least one of the documents (the WSJ reports it was at least two) that Comey handed off to his pal must have been classified. Even if that's confirmed, I still doubt Comey would land in any serious legal jeopardy over this, but it does appear to be another blow to his credibility. Also, here's the Bloomberg story I referenced on the 'obstruction of justice' piece of the special counsel probe, which suggests that Trump isn't in Robert Mueller's crosshairs on that issue, either. Perhaps the only way that could change is if Trump provides incriminating answers in an interview with Mueller -- which seemed to be highly unlikely to ever occur as recently as a few days ago. Now? Anything is possible. Again. At the onset of this post, I mentioned that it's been a stupid day in DC, so I'll leave you with the stupidest thing that's happened:
BREAKING via @thamburger @PostRoz @nakashimae: Democratic Party files lawsuit alleging Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks conspired to disrupt the 2016 campaign https://t.co/ADUn29t8vs
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) April 20, 2018
Why, that sounds like a serious charge that ought to be investigated by someone. Needless to say, this is even more moronically frivolous than McCabe's allegation of "wrongful termination." Let's face it: The DNC isn't filing this suit -- especially prior to the release of Mueller's final report -- because they have any real evidence of collusion. They're doing it to make a splash with their base (here's some other garbage Democrats have attempted lately) and maybe kickstart their lethargic fundraising. The competition to bilk money out of gullible, spite-filled resisters is fierce these days.
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