‘Grossly Misrepresented’: Disgraced Ex-FBI Leader Andrew McCabe Appears To Defend Targeting GOP Senators

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, appearing on CNN Thursday, seemed to downplay concerns about the Department of Justice (DOJ) obtaining phone records of Republican lawmakers.

Former DOJ special counsel Jack Smith allegedly accessed the call logs and private communications of Republican senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee while investigating President Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, Fox News reported Monday. Appearing on “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” McCabe defended Smith after reports suggested investigators subpoenaed toll records, or telephone call logs, involving lawmakers who objected to certifying the 2020 election results.

“I think it’s important that he’s [Smith is] speaking up in a way to kind of demystify what has been grossly misrepresented to the American people by the senators in that testimony we saw a few weeks ago. As you mentioned, Kasie, toll records are a very rudimentary kind of first step investigative technique in many, many, many, almost all investigations,” McCabe told host Kasie Hunt. “And it’s typically done early in investigation when you have an allegation and you’re trying to … vet an allegation to even see if there’s something worth investigating.”

McCabe said obtaining phone records of Republican senators was a basic way to verify allegations.

“So, if someone comes to you, let’s say a situation like this, if someone makes an allegation that they have information that the president contacted a particular senator in the process of trying to stall the Congress’ work on certifying the election,” McCabe said. “One way to vet that information would be to get toll records to see if there was actually telephonic contact between those people. And after you’ve proved that if there’s no contact, then you know not to go down that investigative avenue. If there is contact and there are of course more techniques that you can use to get to the bottom of it.”

McCabe added that acquiring those records takes a grand jury subpoena and insisted the process was lawful.

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“I should also say that it takes a grand jury subpoena to acquire those records. That is not something that a prosecutor and FBI agent just dream up off the top of their heads and call up the phone company and say, ‘Hey send us everything you have.’ There is a process,” McCabe said. “These records are access lawfully under the purview of the grand jury.”

Pressed on whether the FBI applies a higher bar for investigations involving members of Congress as opposed to private citizens, McCabe conceded there are internal policies that treat elected officials as sensitive investigative matters, but maintained that the Bureau still has the authority to pursue such leads.

“Sure they are, by things as simple as kind of internal policy. [In] the FBI, there are some sorts of investigations that we qualify as sensitive investigative matters,” McCabe said.

Smith reportedly expanded his inquiry to include several right-leaning groups, among them the campus organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA), as well as former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, according to whistleblowers who briefed Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Breaks Down What Trump Is Really ‘Looking For’ In His New Legal Fight)

Smith later obtained a superseding indictment against Trump in August 2024, roughly two months after the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s immunity claims tied to an earlier version of the same case. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed the charges in Nov. 2024 at Smith’s own request, following Trump’s victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race.

Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland made Smith’s final report public on Jan. 14, detailing his conclusions about Trump’s attempts to contest the 2020 results. Garland appointed Smith in Nov. 2022 to handle investigations concerning both Trump’s election challenges and his handling of classified documents.

The first Trump administration’s DOJ fired McCabe in 2018 following allegations that he lied about the leaking of information to the media. The Biden administration rescinded his firing in 2021.

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