Rep. Matt Gaetz said on Sunday he disagrees with the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and said he managed to parlay his former status into freedom.
In an appearance on Fox Business Network with Maria Bartiromo, the Florida Republican said he believes there are still unresolved issues involving McCabe.
But, by avoiding prosecutor, Gaetz said it gives the appearance that because he was a former ranking FBI official the Justice Department gave him special treatment.
“I don’t know how Andrew McCabe wouldn’t be central to the [U.S. Attorney John] Durham probe, because Andrew McCabe was the acting FBI director,” Gaetz began.
“And remember the text messages between [fired FBI counterintelligence chief Peter] Strzok and [former FBI lawyer Lisa] Page, where they talked about the need to open up investigations during McCabe’s tenure as the acting FBI director because they didn’t think they could get that maybe in the future if someone else were brought in,” he said.
“So he seems central to that probe,” Gaetz continued.
“I believe he should have been prosecuted for the lying because of the double standard,” he added.
The Justice Department inspector general sent a criminal referral on McCabe to the DoJ last year after finding that he had provided false statements to FBI investigators regarding leaked material to the media.
“You see Mike Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone all charged with misstatements, and then McCabe not charged. It sort of makes people believe that an old FBI business card may be doubling as a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Gaetz added.
“And that’s what we want to see the attorney general refute. We want to see the attorney general acknowledge that there is still some swamp left to be drained at the Department of Justice.”