CNN announced on Friday that it has hired controversial ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, prompting jeers from the network’s critics. McCabe was fired from the Bureau in March 2018, allegedly for lying about his leaks to the media.
The Justice Department inspector general’s report found in February 2018 that McCabe had “lacked candor” about his involvement in a self-serving leak to the Wall Street Journal regarding an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
The OIG referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which has been investigating.
McCabe filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the Justice Department and the FBI over his firing, which came just over 24 hours before he planned to retire.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington. It names Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, as well as the DOJ and FBI, as defendants. It comes the same week that another longtime FBI official who was fired from the bureau, Peter Strzok, brought suit alleging unlawful termination.
McCabe, who served in the FBI for more than two decades, alleged that President Donald Trump schemed to “discredit and remove DOJ and FBI employees who were deemed to be his partisan opponents because they were not politically loyal to him.”
Fox News pointed out that conservative critics were quick to blast CNN for giving the scandal-plagued ex-Gman a platform on its “ratings-challenged” network.
The Hill media reporter Joe Concha told Fox News that “McCabe was fired by the FBI for lying at least four times, including three times under oath” and lacks the trustworthiness needed to be taken seriously as a cable news pundit.
“His credibility is non-existent,” Concha said. “He told Anderson Cooper earlier this year he believed it was possible President Donald Trump is a Russian asset, an outrageous claim for someone of his former stature to make on national television just to promote a book.”
“If applying the Michael Flynn jail sentence [standard] regarding lying to the FBI, McCabe shouldn’t be going to CNN, he should be going to jail,” Concha added. “This is truly a disservice to CNN viewers, which will only further plunge the network’s credibility into a black hole.”
Conservative strategist Chris Barron mocked CNN for “ranting” about former Trump administration staffers landing media jobs and then hiring McCabe “who was fired for lying” himself.
“Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up,” Barron told Fox News. “At this point, CNN would be willing to hire Baghdad Bob if he promised to criticize Trump. It’s sad to see the once-respected outlet reduced to this.”
According to Fox, some CNN insiders are also slamming the move.
“There was a time when journalists were inherently skeptical of intelligence officials,” an unnamed CNN employee told Fox News. “Now, former spy chiefs and FBI officials find paid gigs with flattering, non-challenging appearances on our network. Such arrangements would’ve been unimaginable to journalists in decades past.”
CNN’s in-house media reporter Oliver Darcy broke the news about McCabe’s new gig on Twitter and his tweet was quickly met with derision.
pretty sure he has always been a contributor , now it is just public knowledge.
— 𝓙𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓐𝓻𝓴𝓪𝓷𝓼𝓪𝔀𝔂𝓮𝓻 (@Scotty_2017) August 23, 2019
So those at CNN who were up in arms over Fox hiring Sanders and Spicer appearing on dancing with the stars are celebrating their network’s hiring of Andrew McCabe, who, unlike Spicer and Sanders, lied under oath and was referred for criminal charges by the IG. 🤔
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) August 23, 2019
This is why CNN is a joke
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) August 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/thebradfordfile/status/1164927444119371778?s=20
Andrew McCabe, one of the central figures of the “Russia collusion” hoax, who was fired from the FBI for lying about his leaks to the media, has been hired by CNN, one of the media outlets that did the most to perpetuate the damaging hoax. pic.twitter.com/lvfPRCk4tb
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) August 23, 2019