Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
late Friday, less than two days shy of his retirement, ending the career of an official
who had risen to serve as secondincommand at the bureau. McCabe had more recently been
regularly taunted by President Donald Trump and
besieged by accusations that he had misled internal investigators at the Justice
Department.
In a blistering statement Friday night, McCabe said his firing is part of a larger
effort to discredit the FBI and the special counsel's investigation. "This attack on my credibility
is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me
personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals
more generally," McCabe said. "It is part of this Administration's ongoing war on
the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this
day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the
Special Counsel's work." Shortly after midnight, Trump tweeted. "Andrew McCabe FIRED,
a great day for the hard working men and women of the
FBI A great day for Democracy," Trump said. "Sanctimonious James Comey was
his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and
corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!" Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for
the hard working men and women of the
FBI A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and
made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going
on at the highest levels of the FBI!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018
McCabe had been expected to retire this Sunday, on his 50th birthday, when he
would have become eligible to receive early retirement benefits. But Friday's
termination could place a portion of his anticipated pension, earned
after more than two decades of service, in significant jeopardy. READ: Former FBI Deputy Director
Andrew McCabe;s statement on his firing
READ: Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's statement on his firing
The origin of his dramatic fall stems from an internal review conducted by Justice
Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. That report the details of
which have not been publicly released is said to conclude that McCabe misled
investigators about his role in directing other officials at the FBI to speak to The
Wall Street Journal about his involvement in a public corruption investigation into
the Clinton Foundation, according to a source briefed on it. CNN reported on Wednesday that the
findings in Horowitz's report on McCabe
were referred to the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, staffed with career
officials, who recommended McCabe's termination. McCabe, accompanied by his
lawyer, tried making a lastditch effort Thursday to avoid the firing, meeting with
officials at the deputy attorney general's office at the Justice Department for
several hours while Sessions was traveling, but to no avail. "After an extensive and fair
investigation and according to Department of Justice
procedure, the Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) provided its
report on allegations of misconduct by Andrew McCabe to the FBI's Office of
Professional Responsibility (OPR)," Sessions said in a statement late Friday. "The
FBI's OPR then reviewed the report and underlying documents and issued a
disciplinary proposal recommending the dismissal of Mr. McCabe. Both the OIG
and FBI OPR reports concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized
disclosure to the news media and lacked candor ? including under oath ? on
multiple occasions." McCabe says Republicans ;mischaracterized; his testimony on Trump dossier
McCabe says Republicans 'mischaracterized' his testimony on Trump dossier
Horowitz's office is continuing to investigate how the Justice Department and FBI
handled sensitive investigations leading up to the 2016 presidential election
including the probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server and a more global
report is expected this spring. That closely watched report, which Trump has
derided as "already late," could prove devastating for former and current top
officials at the Justice Department and FBI depending on the findings, as the
President has sought to weave a narrative of biased "deep state" holdovers from
the Obama administration determined to undermine his presidency. Embattled FBI official
Andrew McCabe could lose ;a lot of money; if fired before
Sunday
Embattled FBI official Andrew McCabe could lose 'a lot of money' if fired before
Sunday
McCabe alleged that the report's release was sped up "only after" his testimony
suggested that he would corroborate Comey's accounts of his conversations with
Trump. "Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role
I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the
firing of James Comey," McCabe said in a statement. "The OIG's focus on me and
this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven
by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly
strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated
release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only
when viewed through this lens." A representative for McCabe said he learned from a press
release that he had been
fired by Sessions. A Justice Department spokesperson pushed back, saying, "Mr. McCabe and his
attorney were informed in advance of any news media." McCabe's representative said he received
an email on his FBI account shortly
before the Justice Department notified the media, but he was not regularly
checking that account, since he was on leave from duties at the bureau. While former FBI
officials say a lack of candor is a death knell for an agent's career, Sessions' decision
to fire McCabe presented unique political complications. Embattled former FBI deputy says he ;
never misled; Justice investigators
Embattled former FBI deputy says he 'never misled' Justice investigators
Trump often used McCabe as a political punching bag on the campaign trail given
his wife's purported past ties to Clinton going so far as heckling Sessions over the
summer for failing to fire McCabe despite the fact that Trump had interviewed
McCabe just weeks prior about serving as FBI director after he ousted James
Comey. In December, Trump made a cryptic reference to McCabe's approaching
retirement, tweeting: "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to
retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?" The full implications of McCabe's firing on
his pension remain to be seen, but he
could potentially stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. Retirement
benefits for federal employees are based on several variables in employment
history, but McCabe's salary is not public and the FBI declined to release it to CNN.