Sacked FBI deputy chief claims he was targeted by Trump over Russia investigation
Sacked FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe claims he was targeted because he is a crucial witness as to whether President Donald Trump tried to obstruct the investigation into Russian election meddling.
The US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the dismissal on Friday, saying he felt justified in doing so after the justice department’s internal watchdog found that Mr McCabe leaked information to the media and misled investigators about his actions.
“The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and accountability,” Mr Sessions said.
But Mr McCabe, who played an important role in the bureau’s investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election, denied those claims and said he was facing retaliation by the Trump government.
In a statement, Mr McCabe said he believed he was being politically targeted because he corroborated former FBI director James Comey’s claims that Mr Trump tried to put pressure on him to kill the Russia investigation.
Mr Trump sacked Mr Comey last year and acknowledged that it was because of “this Russia thing”.
“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,” Mr McCabe said. “This attack on my credibility is part of a larger effort to taint the FBI, law enforcement and intelligence professionals more generally.”
The president praised Mr McCabe’s dismissal on Twitter yesterday. “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 about the lies and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI,” Mr Trump wrote.
Mr McCabe was sacked two days before his 50th birthday, when he would have been eligible to retire with his full pension. His sacking, which comes nine months after Mr Trump fired Mr Comey, puts his pension in jeopardy.
His sacking was triggered by a critical report from the justice department’s inspector general that led the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility to recommend he be dismissed.
The report, which has yet to be made public, states Mr McCabe misled investigators about his communications with a former reporter from
The Wall Street Journal, who was writing about his role in investigations tied to Ms Clinton.
In his statement, Mr McCabe said the release of the inspector general’s report was “accelerated” after he testified before the US House Intelligence Committee, where he revealed he could back up Mr Comey’s claims.
Mr Comey’s sacking has become key to questions about whether Mr Trump obstructed the Russia investigation.
His dismissal paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller to lead the investigation into possible collusion between Mr Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Mr McCabe could be a crucial witness in Mr Mueller’s investigation.
Mr Trump has accused the Republican, who worked at the FBI for more than 20 years, of political bias and conflicts in connection with his oversight of investigations related to Ms Clinton, Mr Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election.
Some of that criticism stemmed from the fact that his wife, Jill McCabe, a Democrat, received donations for her unsuccessful 2015 Virginia state senate campaign from Terry McAuliffe, who was then the state’s governor and an ally of the Clintons.
Mr McCabe did not start overseeing the investigations until after his wife’s campaign ended, the FBI has said, and therefore he did not have a conflict of interest.