Having covered former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s effective suspension and subsequent firing, I’d like to quickly weigh in on this week’s ABC News report that McCabe had once led an investigation into Sessions over apparent misstatements about his interactions with Russian officials during the campaign. Katie already noted that McCabe evidently launched that probe at the behest of Democratic lawmakers, which is an intriguing angle to the story. But in my mind, there are three major reasons why this “revelation” does not matter, setting aside the strong likelihood that this story was obviously planted in an attempt to discredit the McCabe termination, perhaps orchestrated by McCabe himself:
(1) McCabe was fired because an independent, Obama-appointed Inspector General determined that he’d engaged in unauthorized leaking to the media, then misled IG investigators about having done so. That evidence was reviewed by widely-respected current FBI Director (who had previously gone to the mat on McCabe’s behalf), who consequently placed McCabe on “terminal leave.” The FBI’s nonpartisan ethics office, known as the Office of Professional Responsibility, also examined the Inspector General’s findings and determined that the proper recourse was to fire McCabe. The Attorney General followed through on that recommendation. That’s about as apolitical, by the book, and non-suspicious as it gets. To cast doubt on the legitimacy of the firing, one must cast doubt on the integrity not of anyone in Trumpworld, but of the nonpartisan IG and the FBI’s OPR.
(2) The subject of McCabe’s investigation into Sessions — ironically, the very sort of deliberate non-candor that led to McCabe getting sacked — was scrutinized by Robert Mueller’s team…which exonerated Sessions:
Within weeks, Rosenstein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to take over the investigation and related inquiries, including the Sessions matter. Two months ago, Sessions was interviewed by Mueller’s team, and the federal inquiry related to his candor during his confirmation process has since been shuttered, according to a lawyer representing Sessions. “The Special Counsel’s office has informed me that after interviewing the attorney general and conducting additional investigation, the attorney general is not under investigation for false statements or perjury in his confirmation hearing testimony and related written submissions to Congress,” attorney Chuck Cooper told ABC News on Wednesday.
(3) When he acted upon the advice of career FBI ethics officials — who’d drawn on Inspector General-derived evidence to reach their conclusion — Attorney General Sessions (who, remember, had recused himself on all Russia-related matters) reportedly did not know that McCabe had ever initiated an investigation into him:
McCabe’s previously-unreported decision to actually put the attorney general in the crosshairs of an FBI probe was an exceptional move. One source told ABC News that Sessions was not aware of the investigation when he decided to fire McCabe last Friday less than 48 hours before McCabe, a former FBI deputy director, was due to retire from government and obtain a full pension, but an attorney representing Sessions declined to confirm that.
So to recap, Democrats were (defensibly and understandably) eager for a Sessions investigation, due to his misstatements and inaccurate recollections. McCabe, then a top FBI official, agreed with their reasoning and took the lead in launching a probe into his boss’ boss. When the Bureau’s existing Russia inquiry was subsumed by the special counsel probe, Mueller and company tracked down that thread. After looking into it and interviewing Sessions, they determined that he was not guilty of perjury or other related offenses and was no longer a target of their investigation (at least on that front). Months later, after independent watchdogs found separate and unrelated wrongdoing on McCabe’s behalf and recommended that he be fired over his misconduct, Sessions accepted their judgment and executed their recommendation, having been unaware of McCabe’s previous investigative activity into him. There is no scandal here, unless Sessions’ attorneys and ABC News’ other sources are lying. If there’s evidence of deceit, let’s see it. If there isn’t any evidence to that effect, this leak looks like a craven attempt to muddy the waters and make McCabe’s justified dismissal look like an act of partisan vengeance. The president’s tweets certainly feed that impression, but the actual underlying facts and context tell the real story.
I’ll leave you with two parting head-scratchers, via Allahpundit. First, some snark: “I wonder who could have leaked this. It would have to be someone with high-level FBI knowledge, who suddenly has an axe to grind with Jeff Sessions and the president. Imagine what else such a person might know and might be willing to share in a tell-all book, the royalties from which could fund a lavish retirement just in case his nest egg is momentarily a little short. Any theories?” Gee. Second, and more importantly:
Sessions’s lawyer told ABC that “The Special Counsel’s office has informed me that after interviewing the attorney general and conducting additional investigation, the attorney general is not under investigation for false statements or perjury in his confirmation hearing testimony and related written submissions to Congress.” Since when is Bob Mueller’s office in the habit of announcing who is and isn’t still under investigation in Russiagate? If Sessions could be cleared before the investigation is complete, why can’t any of the other major players?
The students intend to send a message to President Donald Trump and Congress and demand that their politicians pursue gun legislation to make it harder to acquire firearms. Their goal is to stem “the epidemic of mass schools shootings that has become all too familiar,” according to their mission statement.
Demetri Hoth, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, spoke alongside Florida politicians and other students from D.C., Chicago and Minneapolis at a press conference at Capitol Hill on Friday.
“I stand before you here today to invite you, students and parents across America: Let us pray with our legs, let us march in unison to the rhythm of justice, because I say enough is enough,” Hoth said.
March for Our Lives events Friday included a voter registration drive, a concert and a candlelight vigil.
Lori Alhadeff and her husband Ilan Alhadeff, right, hold a picture of their daughter Alyssa Alhadeff, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victim, during a news conference on gun control March 23, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. Alex Wong / Getty Images
A Rock the Vote event — hosted by the National Education Association and run in partnership with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the National Urban League — took place Friday at 6 p.m.
A benefit concert at 6:30 p.m. was scheduled to include a number of notable artists, including Fall Out Boy, G-Eazy, Bebe Rexha, Lizzo and others. At 7 p.m., the Washington National Cathedral will host an interfaith prayer vigils for those who planned to participate in the march.
Prior to all three events, some Parkland students met with members of Congress and former Vice President Joe Biden in private meetings, while others shared their mass shooting experiences at the Newseum.
All seemed to push for the same thing, however: more restrictive gun laws.
“Stop being coerced by the NRA,” Hoth said, speaking to Congress. “I urge you propose meaningful gun safety laws, vote yea to bills that advance gun control, and sing along with us to the melody of justice, never again, never again, never again.”
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The Washington Metropolitan Police have limited the event to three entrances where participants may join the march on Saturday. Organizers expect around 30,000 people to attend Saturday’s rally.
“The support we’ve gotten is unimaginable,” said Casey Sherman, a Stoneman Douglas junior and one of the main organizers. “So we’re really excited for this Saturday: It’s going to be incredible. I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am of all the work that we and students across the country and across the world have been doing.”
Sherman said that approximately 20 Stoneman Douglas students had worked to organize the march, but he said many more would be pitching in on Saturday.
Alfonso Calderon, a junior from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, speaks during a rally with Thurgood Marshall Academy students in advance of Saturday’s March for Our Lives event, in Washington on March 22, 2018. Eric Thayer / Reuters
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told MSNBC that the country owed a debt to this group of Parkland students, who he planned to meet prior to the march.
“I’m going to look them in the eye and say, thank you to the students of Parkland and the students around the country who are finally changing the conversation here on Capitol Hill,” he said.
And those students aren’t holding back. The March for Our Lives website allows attendees to print out a “price tag” of $1.05 to wear at the event. That price is the amount the NRA contributed to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., divided by the number of students in Florida, which organizers argue is how much each student is worth to the two-term senator.
The event also aims to be a massive voter registration push, as participants are encouraged to download “Voter Registration Toolkits” that are state specific and ensure those they know join the voter rolls.
While tens of thousands of marchers are expected to join in throughout the United States — with demonstrations planned in Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles — there are a handful of solidarity events organized on Friday and Saturday in countries across the globe. Rallies are planned in Israel, New Zealand, Australia, the U.K. Japan, Belgium, India, France and Chile.
Valentina Pedroza, 17, who traveled to D.C. for the march from Boston, said a close family friend was a victim of gun violence.
“It hit us hard. A lot of students and other people from Boston suffer from gun violence daily,” Pedroza said, “and I’m just here to represent other teenagers who have died in the city.”
“We’re hoping to actually see change and have our voices be heard, so that senators and representatives and the government finally rise up and realize they’re doing the wrong thing here,” she said.
Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords Courage, gun control advocacy groups, are helping the sister marches throughout the country coordinate with the March for Our Lives movement, and they’re also acting as advisers to the teen organizers.
“We’ve really been getting a lot of advice and help in that area from people who have that experience,” Sherman said. “Of course we’re advising [on] everything … but we’ve really been focusing on those last kind of little final pieces … that’ll make our march so much more.”
A number of celebrities showered praise on the students. Some, including Miley Cyrus, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Common and Ben Platt, also planned to join them on Saturday.
Meanwhile, back in Parkland, their teachers and parents also applauded the students’ efforts.
Gregory Pittman, an American history teacher, said at a Stoneman Douglas pep rally on Tuesday that he was proud of his students, as they had taken what they’d learned in the classroom and applied it in the real world. He believed that this movement would only continue to grow.
“This is not the end of what they’re going to do,” he said. “This is only the beginning both in Florida and definitely in Washington. We’ve only started in Washington.”
