Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's attorney is claiming that U.S. government officials are withholding evidence from his lawsuit over his bureau termination, according to CBS News.
"At this time, plaintiff has assembled a small set of supporting evidence from his own records and from publicly available sources; however, much of the relevant evidence in this case is in defendants' exclusive possession or the possession of current or former government officials," attorney Murad Hussain declared in a filing, per the report.
McCabe was fired in March 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions two days before his retirement. His attorney's declaration charges that seven agencies and 30 officials are withholding documents requested in the lawsuit against his employer, including FBI Director Chris Wray, Attorney General William Barr, and President Donald Trump, per CBS.
McCabe's firing before his retirement was based on a DOJ inspector general report finding he misstated his involvement in a media disclosure about the FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation. It followed President Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey. When Comey was terminated in 2017, McCabe became acting director.
McCabe said he ordered obstruction of justice and counterintelligence investigations involving Trump and his ties to Russia, shortly after the president fired Comey, CBS News reported previously.
In a "60 Minutes" interview several months ago, McCabe said: "I was very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground, in an indelible fashion. That were I removed quickly, or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace. I wanted to make sure our case was on solid ground and if somebody came in behind me and closed it and tried to walk away from it, they would not be able to do it without creating a record of why they made that decision.”