Ex-FBI deputy director fired
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Federal Bureau of Investigation deputy director Andrew McCabe, a regular target of US President Donald Trump’s anger and criticism, was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday, just two days before his scheduled retirement date.
McCabe immediately decried the move and suggested it was part of the Trump administration’s “war on the FBI.”
The dismissal was made on the recommendation of FBI disciplinary officials and comes ahead of an inspector general report expected to conclude that McCabe had authorized the release of information to the news media and had not been forthcoming with the watchdog office as it examined the bureau’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
“The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and accountability,” Sessions said in a statement last Friday night.
In an extraordinary rebuttal released immediately after the attorney general’s announcement, McCabe said his credibility had been attacked as “part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally” but also the FBI and law enforcement.
“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,” McCabe said, referring to Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
“Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the special counsel’s work,” McCabe added.
The former No. 2 FBI official also asserted that he was being singled out because of the “role I played, the actions I took and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey.”
Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s actions, in- cluding firing Comey as FBI director last May, constitute obstruction of justice and McCabe, a close Comey confidant, could be an important witness. McCabe said the release of the findings against him was accelerated after he told congressional officials that he could corroborate Comey’s accounts of his conversations with the president.
Though McCabe had spent more than 20 years as a career FBI official, and had played key roles in some of the bureau’s most recent significant investigations, Trump had repeatedly condemned him over the last year as emblematic of an FBI leadership he contends is biased against his administration. He appeared to revel in the termination, tweeting early yesterday that it was a “great day for Democracy” and a “great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI.”