McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year amid the investigation into his conduct. The Wall Street Journal article at the center of the OIG's inquiry was published on October 30, 2016, two days after then-FBI director James Comey announced in a letter to Congress that the bureau was reopening its investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct government business when she was secretary of state.
The article was a highly-detailed account of internal strife within the top ranks of the DOJ about how to proceed after FBI agents investigating former New York congressman Anthony Weiner for sexual misconduct discovered 650,000 emails on his laptop that could have been sent to or from Clinton's private email server. Many of the emails came from accounts belonging to Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, who was also Clinton's longtime aide and a senior adviser to her campaign, The Journal reported.
At the same time, DOJ anticorruption prosecutors were at odds with FBI officials over whether to continue pursuing a separate investigation into the Clinton Foundation's financial dealings. While DOJ officials believed there wasn't enough evidence to move forward with the probe and wouldn't authorize further investigatory measures, FBI officials, including McCabe, believed they had the authority to continue the investigation using whatever leads they had already acquired, the report said.
