Justice Department drops leak case against former FBI acting head Andrew McCabe

The Department of Justice has told lawyers for former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe that he will not face criminal charges for allegedly lying to investigators about a leak to the media, McCabe's attorneys said Friday.

"We learned this morning through a phone call from the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office that was followed by a letter that the Justice Department's criminal investigation of Andrew McCabe has been closed," McCabe's lawyers said in a statement.

"This means that no charges will be brought against him based on the facts underlying the Office of the Inspector General’s April 2018 report. At long last, justice has been done in this matter," the statement continued.

President Donald Trump had publicly urged that action be taken against McCabe, the former deputy FBI director who became acting head of the agency after Trump fired James Comey in 2017.

"He LIED! LIED! LIED!" Trump wrote in one 2018 tweet about McCabe after the Justice Department's inspector general found McCabe “lacked candor” when being interviewed about whether he was a source for two news articles pertaining to the FBI in 2016.

The announcement came one day after Attorney General William Barr pushed back against criticism he's using DOJ to do Trump's bidding.