Now-FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 12, 2017. Alex Wong/Getty Images
FBI Director Christopher Wray was “shocked to his core” by the contents of a four-page report which reportedly details politically motivated abuses of government surveillance by the Obama administration, Fox News’ Sean Hannity reported, citing an unnamed source.
Wray viewed the secret document at the Capitol on Sunday, Jan. 28. On Monday morning, the FBI’s second highest ranking official, Andrew McCabe, announced that he was stepping down.
Later on the same day, the House Intelligence Committee voted to make the report available to the public. President Donald Trump has to approve the memo’s release within five days. On Tuesday, a White House aide told Bloomberg that the president will review the document.
McCabe was planning to retire in March, so the change in timeline may mean that he was asked to leave, according to Sara Carter, an independent security reporter who often appears on Fox News.
Newly installed acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on May 11, 2017. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
“This time they asked him to go right away. You’re not coming into the office,” Carter told Fox News. “I’ve heard reports he didn’t even come in for the morning meeting—that he didn’t show up.”
Several sources also told Carter that an upcoming DOJ inspector general’s report shows that McCabe asked FBI agents to modify reports of their interviews with witnesses, which, if proven, would amount to obstruction of justice and lead to McCabe’s firing.
“I heard they are considering firing him within the next few days if this turns out to be true,” Carter said.
McCabe is currently on terminal leave and is set to retire when he is eligible for full benefits in March.
Republican House lawmakers have pushed for the public release of the four-page House Intelligence Committee memo since Jan. 18. House Republicans, 65 in total, sent a letter to the House Intelligence Committee asking for the memo to be released.
The secret memo was made available to members of Congress since Jan. 18. Those who have viewed the report have described it as “worse than Watergate“ and ”sickening“ and likened it to a ”palace coup.”
The report also shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC funded an unsubstantiated Fusion GPS dossier, and used it to obtain a warrant for surveillance of Trump-associate Carter Page, New York Times reported.
The Fusion GPS dossier explained. Click to see full resolution. Epoch Times
The House memo on surveillance abuses is set to be released amid renewed scrutiny of two top FBI officials who exchanged anti-Trump text messages.
Among messages sent between top FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page was a discussion of an “insurance policy” in the event Trump is elected and a “secret society” within the FBI and DOJ.
An informant has since told lawmakers that the secret society held at least one secret offsite meeting and consisted of top-level officials in the FBI and DOJ.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office–that there’s no way he gets elected–but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok wrote in a message to Page on Aug. 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
Some lawmakers believe that the “Andy” in the text messages is McCabe, Fox News reported.
