WASHINGTON — A criminal investigation into whether former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe made false statements during an internal probe into a news media disclosure remains open, his attorney said Thursday.

“We’ve had dealings with the U.S. attorney’s office” in Washington that has been handling the case, said lawyer Michael Bromwich. “We are in continuing communication with them.”

The Justice Department inspector general last year referred for investigation and possible prosecution allegations that McCabe lied under oath when questioned about the source of information in a 2016 Wall Street Journal story about an FBI inquiry into the Clinton Foundation.

McCabe has acknowledged that he permitted subordinates to speak to the reporter to correct what he said was a false narrative, but he has denied that he lied to investigators.

He has called his March 2018 firing, which arose from the false statement allegations, politically motivated. Bromwich said McCabe will soon sue the Justice Department over his firing.

McCabe is a frequent target of President Donald Trump’s wrath and has just published a book highly critical of Trump.

The investigation into the news media disclosure exposed a rift between McCabe and former FBI Director James Comey.

McCabe told the inspector general’s office that he told Comey after the article was published that he had allowed the officials to share information about the call and that Comey responded that it was a “good” idea to rebut a one-sided narrative. But Comey is quoted in the report as saying McCabe never told him he had approved sharing details of the call and, in fact, had left him with the opposite impression.

Asked about his current relationship with Comey, McCabe replied tersely, “We don’t really have a relationship now.”

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