FBI’s McCabe takes heat while awaiting pension

WASHINGTON — Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s deputy director who has been the target of Republican critics for more than a year, plans to retire in a few months when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits, according to people familiar with the matter.

McCabe, 49, was former Director James Comey’s right-hand man, a position that involved him in most of the FBI’s actions that vex President Donald Trump as well as the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, a matter that still riles Democrats.

When Trump fired Comey in May, that meant McCabe had to stay — first to run the agency until a new director was in place and then to take the political heat for decisions made by his former boss.

Within the agency, there is praise, but also some criticism, for how McCabe has handled his role. Still, he has become a lightning rod in the political storms now buffeting the bureau. Conservatives have called for heads to roll at the FBI, and McCabe is atop many of their lists.

McCabe got an eighthour grilling from the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and returned to Congress on Thursday to face more than nine hours of questions from the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has called for McCabe’s ouster, saying he “ought to go for reasons of being involved in some of the things that took place in the previous administration.”

Democrats emerging from Thursday’s questioning of McCabe urged him to resist Republicans’ calls to step down, saying that the GOP’s new focus on McCabe smells of political opportunism.