Former FBI official Andy McCabe was critical of a recent move by former special counsel Jack Smith while he was on his way out the door of the Justice Department.
McCabe and co-host Allison Gill from the "Jack" podcast expressed their mutual annoyance at Smith's handling of the final reports on President-elect Donald Trump's federal cases.
At the close of their 110th episode, the two answered a listener question asking whether a DOJ policy or law was mandating that Smith give Trump an advance copy of the two-volume report.
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Gill noted a "gentlemanly" norm that Smith was not obligated to follow. Smith cited former special counsel Robert Hur, who gave Joe Biden an early copy of his report into mishandling of classified documents, as the reasoning.
It's "just leaving you vulnerable to be exploited, and I am coming down on the side that this was a mistake," said Gill.
McCabe noted that it has been rare for him to disagree with the DOJ's decisions, but this one was "a huge strategic blunder" and "massive self-inflicted injury."
"It's a perfect example of bringing the knife to the gunfight," McCabe continued. "This case, in which the defense has taken advantage of every single aspect of our judicial system and been given more grace, more opportunity, and more privileges and consideration than any other defendant could ever has ever gotten or will ever get in this country [or] in any case. You don't owe him anything! Period."
McCabe said that no law or even courtesy is necessary. "And since when are we following Rob Hur's example to determine how to do our business?"
He went on to say that the whole ordeal with Judge Aileen Cannon and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals could have been avoided had Smith flagged for Attorney General Merrick Garland that he was sending the report and urged the first volume be released.
The second volume remains secret because, while the case against Trump has been dismissed, his alleged co-conspirators are still under indictment.
Gill summed the ordeal up by calling it a "self-own."
The two also discussed different options for making the second part of the report public. One is for Biden to use the presidential immunity afforded him by a recent Supreme Court ruling and release the report. The co-hosts also discussed the possibility of Biden beating Trump to the punch, pardoning the co-conspirators, and releasing the second volume that way.