The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding to know why acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe did not recuse himself from investigations involving President Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Sen. Charles Grassley wrote Thursday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to reiterate his concern about “the appearance of political bias at the FBI” and cited recent a recent news report that indicates Mr. McCabe is the subject of an ongoing sex discrimination complaint that was supported by Mr. Flynn.
“That evidence and the failure to recuse calls into question whether Mr. McCabe handled the Flynn investigation fairly and objectively, or whether he had any retaliatory motive against Flynn for being an adverse witness to him in a pending proceeding,” Mr. Grassley wrote.
The Iowa Republican has previously raised concern over Mr. McCabe’s failure to recuse himself from the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
Mr. McCabe landed in an unfavorable spotlight last year when reports surfaced that his wife, Jill McCabe, collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from organizations overseen by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally, during her unsuccessful 2015 campaign for the Virginia state Senate.
Mr. McCabe was at the time overseeing the FBI’s Washington field office, which was providing the manpower to investigate Mrs. Clinton’s secret email server. He was promoted to the position of deputy director by Mr. Comey in February 2016.
The Justice Department Inspector General is reviewing whether Mr. McCabe should have recused himself from aspects of the Clinton probe.
In the sex discrimination case, the news report cited by Mr. Grassley indicates that Mr. Flynn provided a letter of support for Robyn Gritz, the former FBI agent who filed the Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against Mr. McCabe.
Mr. Grassley said he was also concerned about reports that three FBI employees said they heard Mr. McCabe make disparaging remarks about Mr. Flynn “before and during the time the retired Army general emerged as a figure in the Russia case.”
Mr. Grassley asked Mr. Rosenstein to explain “the steps you intend to take as Mr. McCabe’s supervisor to address the appearance of political and other conflicts of interest.”
He also asked the deputy attorney general to provide copies of unredacted documents that lay out the situations in which Mr. McCabe would need to recuse himself from investigations. The senator said he had previously received redacted copies of the documents, which indicate that Mr. McCabe had “approval authority for his own recusal memo.”
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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