The leak to Fox News that the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jessie Liu, has recommended going ahead with prosecution of Andrew McCabe for lying to federal investigators appears to be solid.  Inspector General Horowitz had made a criminal referral, and after 17 months of investigation, the case is no doubt solid.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy indicates one defense approach McCabe's team is likely to use:

McCabe has indicated that, if charged, he would claim that the Justice Department was indicting him because of pressure from the White House. President Trump has been an unrestrained critic of McCabe, accusing him of rampant corruption.

It's called putting your accuser on trial.  Even worse, the case almost certainly will be brought in Washington, D.C., where 92% of the vote went to Hillary Clinton and where President Trump is highly unpopular.

There are reasons for the Justice Department to be concerned that the president's public drumbeat would redound to McCabe's benefit. An indictment would likely lead to a jury trial in Washington, where the president is unpopular.

Ace of Spades is even more worried:

I don't believe anyone has ever authorized a change of venue based on the fact of very high partisan bias. So liberal politicos will always be tried in liberal areas, and they'll almost always be acquitted by Susan McDougal–style juries.

And here's a good question: If our leftwing alleged fellow citizens will no longer do their duty as jurors and render verdicts in cases based on the facts rather than on tribal loyalties, do we really have a country any longer?

But McCarthy and others believe that even a D.C. jury could convict based on the facts already laid out by Horowitz.  Some believe that the case against McCabe is so strong that he will be tempted to cop a plea and implicate higher-ups, such his boss James Comey and Comey's boss, ex-president Barack Obama, in addition other FBI and DoJ colleagues like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

In my dreams.

I am dead certain that Andrew McCabe does not want to face prison.  A former acting director of the FBI would be prey for violent offenders in a federal pen, though his high-priced lawyers no doubt would demand a "Club Fed" minimum-security prison for a nonviolent offender — the kind of crook that Joe Biden thinks shouldn't be jailed at all.  A trial of the nation's former chief law enforcement official would be too compelling for the Trump-hating media to ignore.  But they most likely would portray the case as McCabe presents it — as Trump's vengeance, and even claim that Trump is clamping down on his media enemies, now that McCabe has taken on the role of CNN commentator.

CNN's own coverage of the probable indictment contains hints of such an approach:

It is not inconceivable to me that a D.C. jury could let off McCabe with a not-guity verdict, following the practice known as jury nullification.