Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI, will not testify on Tuesday as he was scheduled to, but will instead meet with the House Intelligence Committee next week, according to Department of Justice officials.
The focus of McCabe’s testimony was to be on Peter Strzok’s role in the investigation into Hilary Clinton’s use of a private email service.
Strzok, a former deputy to the assistant director at the FBI, was removed from the special counsel’s team after Robert Mueller found out he had exchanged anti-Trump texts with a colleague, Fox News reports. Strzok was also regarded a key figure in the 2016 chain of events leading to the FBI receiving the anti-Trump “dossier.”
Regarding McCabe’s testimony, a Justice Department officials said the change of date was due to a “routine scheduling error after the dates were switched on an internal email that we are happy to provide the committee.”
“The FBI regrets the error, and we look forward to making both witnesses (the alleged FBI handler for Christopher Steele and McCabe) available prior to the Christmas recess,” the official added.
Steele, a former British spy who compiled the dossier is to appear before the committee on December 12, while McCabe will testify a week later.
However, the intelligence panel is suspicious of the so-called error and believes the issue arose after it was reported by Fox News that DOJ official Bruce Ohr was demoted and that his wife worked for the firm behind the anti-Trump dossier.
It is unclear whether Mrs. Ohr worked on the dossier, but it is known that she has written extensively on Russia-related subjects.
Some believe that McCabe may face questions about Ohr, and since he is not prepared to answer them, the supposed error was made.
“McCabe has an Ohr problem,” said a congressional source, who added that the committee is prepared to subpoena all Justice Department documents relating to the scheduling issue, as well as to subpoena McCabe to testify this week.
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