Top officials in Justice Department criminal division denied a request in 2016 from senior F.B.I. The disagreement erupted anew later in the summer of 2016, when a top Justice Department official suspected that F.B.I. officials revisited the issue, the Justice Department officials were also concerned that serving subpoenas would violate the practice of avoiding such investigative activity so close to an election. deputy director, who was accused of leaking information about the case to a reporter and later lying about it to the Justice Department inspector general. The episode helped prompt Mr. McCabe’s firing in 2018 and a failed effort by the Justice Department to prosecute him.

Source: New York Times September 24, 2020 09:01 UTC