McCabe says he doesn’t recall if he directed to keep Flynn case open

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told lawmakers Tuesday that he didn’t recall if he was the supervisor who ordered to keep the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn open, but he did agree with the decision.

“I don’t remember making that decision, but I certainly supported keeping the investigation open,” Mr. McCabe testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I don’t remember being the one that made that phone call, but it was the right move to continue the investigation once we found the information that we found.”

Court documents filed earlier this year in the criminal case against Flynn revealed that in January 2017, anti-Trump FBI Agent Peter Strzok kept the probe open because the “7th floor” leadership wanted it to continue.

The FBI was prepared to close the case at the time after failing to turn up any “derogatory” information on Flynn, according to the court documents.

But just hours later, messages between senior agents and FBI officials revealed a last-minute reversal, pushed by the bureau’s highest levels.

The documents don’t indicate why the FBI brass reversed course but the decision was made less than a week after Flynn spoke by phone to Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

That conversation led to a now-infamous White House interview between Flynn and FBI agents in January 2017. Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, but later recanted professing his innocence.

Mr. McCabe said the conversation between Flynn and the Russian ambassador was the “direct contact” the FBI was looking for in its probe of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our feeling is that we found very little, if any, incriminating evidence about General Flynn until we found potentially very incriminating evidence about him,” Mr. McCabe said.