Justice’s decision on McCabe runs afoul of Trump’s war on ex-FBI official

Few people have aroused the wrath of President Trump more than Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director whom the Justice Department Friday decided not to prosecute for having lied to FBI investigators about a media leak.

The president blames Mr. McCabe as a top partisan instigator of the Russia “hoax” that launched the two-year probe of his campaign by special counsel Robert Mueller.

And the Justice Department’s decision could impair the president’s relationship with Attorney General William P. Barr, a star of his administration who fired a warning shot in an interview Thursday against the president trying to pressure federal prosecutors in criminal cases.

Tom Fitton, president of the watchdog group Judicial Watch and a close ally of the president, said in response to the McCabe decision that the Justice Department’s “double standards [have] caused a rule of law crisis.” He noted former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and longtime Trump friend Roger Stone are “set to be thrown in jail” while former FBI Director James B. Comey and Mr. McCabe had been referred for criminal prosecution without consequence.

He added, “Corrupted DOJ begins the week with a slap at @RealDonaldTrump through its abuse of Roger Stone and ends the week with another slap of Trump by letting anti-Trumper McCabe off the hook for serious criminal activity.”

One case that the president badly wanted to see was the U.S. v. McCabe.

Mr. Trump has railed against Mr. McCabe privately, to the media and on Twitter frequently since taking office. He has tweeted or retweeted his contempt for Mr. McCabe 55 times in the past three years.

In March 2018, the president called Mr. McCabe’s firing from the FBI “a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy.”

“Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!” Mr. Trump tweeted.

In April 2018, when the Justice Department issued a report saying Mr. McCabe had lied about leaking details of investigations of Hillary Clinton’s emails and her family foundation to the media, Mr. Trump went on the attack.

“He lied! Lied! Lied! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey - McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!” the president said on Twitter.

Last July, the president called Mr. McCabe “a major sleazebag.”

“Among many other things, he took massive amounts of money from Crooked Hillary reps, for wife’s campaign, while Hillary was under ’investigation’ by FBI!” he tweeted. Mr. McCabe’s wife had received large campaign donations from sources connected to Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe in a failed bid to win state office in Virginia.