{"id":60748,"date":"2018-03-17T04:44:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T04:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=60748"},"modified":"2018-03-17T04:44:43","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T04:44:43","slug":"andrew-mccabe-trumps-foil-fbi-fired-hours-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/andrew-mccabe-trumps-foil-fbi-fired-hours-retire.html","title":{"rendered":"Andrew McCabe, Trump\u2019s foil at the FBI, is fired hours before he could retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew McCabe, Trump\u2019s foil at the FBI, is fired hours before he could retire<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI deputy director Andrew Mc\u00adCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire \u2014 a move that McCabe alleged was an attempt to slander him and undermine the ongoing special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sessions announced the decision in a statement just before 10 p.m., noting that both the Justice Department inspector general and the FBI office that handles discipline had found \u201cthat Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor \u2014 including under oath \u2014 on multiple occasions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said based on those findings and the recommendation of the department\u2019s senior career official, \u201cI have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The move will likely cost Mc\u00adCabe a significant portion of his retirement benefits, though it is possible he could bring a legal challenge. He responded on Friday night with a lengthy statement, claiming he was being targeted because he was a witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III\u2019s probe into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia, and asserting that his actions were appropriate. He also alleged former FBI Director James B. Comey knew about the media disclosure about which the inspector general has raised questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cIt is part of this Administration\u2019s 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\u2019s work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An email notifying McCabe of the move was sent to his work account and his lawyers just minutes before Sessions\u2019s statement was made public, though McCabe learned of the firing from press accounts, his spokeswoman said. McCabe has been fighting vigorously to keep his job, and on Thursday, he spent nearly four hours inside the Justice Department pleading his case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael R. Bromwich, Mc\u00adCabe\u2019s attorney, said that he had \u201cnever before seen the type of rush to judgment \u2014 and rush to summary punishment \u2014 that we have witnessed in this case.\u201d He cited in particular President Trump\u2019s attacks on McCabe on Twitter and the White House press secretary\u2019s comments about him on Thursday \u2014 which he said were \u201cquite clearly designed to put inappropriate pressure on the Attorney General to act accordingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis intervention by the White House in the DOJ disciplinary process is unprecedented, deeply unfair, and dangerous,\u201d Bromwich said.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCabe has become a lightning rod in the political battles over the FBI\u2019s most high-profile cases, including the Russia investigation and the probe of Hillary Clinton\u2019s email practices. He has been a frequent target of criticism from Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

His firing \u2014 which was recommended by the FBI office that handles discipline \u2014 stems from a Justice Department inspector general investigation that found McCabe authorized the disclosure of sensitive information to the media about a Clinton-related case, then misled investigators about his actions in the matter, people familiar with the matter have said. He stepped down earlier this year from the No. 2 job in the bureau after FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was briefed on the inspector general\u2019s findings, though he technically was still an employee.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCabe, who conducted interviews with several media outlets in advance of his firing but declined to do so with The Washington Post, said in his statement he was \u201cbeing singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed\u201d when the president fired Comey as FBI director. Mueller is looking at that termination as part of his examination into whether Trump was attempting to obstruct justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe big picture,\u201d McCabe said, \u201cis a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bromwich, himself a former Justice Department inspector general, suggested that office treated McCabe unfairly, cleaving from a larger investigation its findings on McCabe and not giving McCabe an adequate chance to respond to the allegations he faced. In his statement, Bromwich said McCabe and his lawyers were given limited access to the inspector general\u2019s draft report late last month, saw a final report and evidence a week ago and were \u201creceiving relevant exculpatory evidence as recently as two days ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith so much at stake, this process has fallen far short of what Mr. McCabe deserved,\u201d Bromwich said. \u201cThis concerted effort to accelerate the process in order to beat the ticking clock of his scheduled retirement violates any sense of decency and basic principles of fairness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bromwich, himself a former Justice Department inspector general, suggested that office treated McCabe unfairly, cleaving from a larger investigation its findings on McCabe and not giving McCabe an adequate chance to respond to the allegations he faced. In his statement, Bromwich said McCabe and his lawyers were given limited access to the inspector general\u2019s draft report late last month, saw a final report and evidence a week ago and were \u201creceiving relevant exculpatory evidence as recently as two days ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith so much at stake, this process has fallen far short of what Mr. McCabe deserved,\u201d Bromwich said. \u201cThis concerted effort to accelerate the process in order to beat the ticking clock of his scheduled retirement violates any sense of decency and basic principles of fairness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesman for the inspector general\u2019s office declined to comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some in the bureau might view McCabe\u2019s termination so close to retirement as an unnecessarily harsh and politically influenced punishment for a man who spent more than 20 years at the FBI. The White House had seemed to support such an outcome, though a spokeswoman said the decision was up to Sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do think that it is well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor,\u201d White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump and McCabe\u2019s relationship has long been fraught. The president has previously suggested that McCabe was biased in favor of Clinton, his political opponent, pointing out that McCabe\u2019s wife, who ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Virginia legislature, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the political action committee of Terry McAuliffe, then the state\u2019s governor and a noted Clinton ally. During an Oval office meeting in May, Trump is said to have asked McCabe whom he voted for in the presidential election and vented about the donations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz put McCabe in his crosshairs during a broad look at alleged improprieties in the handling of the Clinton email case. In the course of that review, Horowitz found that McCabe had authorized two FBI officials to talk to then-Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett for a story about the case and another investigation into Clinton\u2019s family foundation. Barrett now works for The Washington Post.<\/span><\/p>\n

Background conversations with reporters are commonplace in Washington, though McCabe\u2019s authorizing such a talk was viewed as inappropriate because the matter being discussed was an ongoing criminal investigation. The story ultimately presented McCabe as a somewhat complicated figure \u2014 one who some FBI officials thought was standing in the way of the Clinton Foundation investigation, but who also seemed to be pushing back against Justice Department officials who did not believe there was a case to be made.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCabe said in his statement that he, as the FBI\u2019s deputy director, had the authority to do what he did. He said he was simply trying to \u201cset the record straight\u201d and \u201cmake clear that we were continuing an investigation that people in DOJ opposed\u201d after the bureau was \u201cportrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An FBI spokesman and a lawyer for Comey declined to comment. McCabe also said he answered questions about the matter \u201ctruthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me,\u201d acknowledging only that he had clarified his account.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCabe, who turns 50 on Sunday and would have then been eligible for his full retirement benefits, had quickly ascended through senior roles to the No. 2 leadership post. He briefly served in an interim capacity as the FBI director, in the months between when Trump fired Comey from the post and Wray was confirmed by the Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCabe\u2019s team on Friday night released a bevy of statements from former national security officials supporting the former deputy director, including from former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.; former National Security Agency Deputy Director Richard H. Ledgett Jr.; former U.S. attorney Chuck Rosenberg; former FBI national security official Michael B. Steinbach; and former Justice Department national security official Mary B. McCord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Steinbach said McCabe had \u201cbecome a convenient scapegoat so that narrow political objectives can be achieved.\u201d McCord said she \u201cnever doubted his honesty or motivations, and can say without hesitation that he was one of the finest FBI agents with whom I ever worked.\u201d Notably absent was a statement from Comey, McCabe\u2019s former boss, though Comey did say after McCabe stepped down as deputy director that he \u201cstood tall over the last 8 months, when small people were trying to tear down an institution we all depend on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/fbis-andrew-mccabe-is-fired-a-little-more-than-24-hours-before-he-could-retire\/2018\/03\/16\/e055a22a-2895-11e8-bc72-077aa4dab9ef_story.html?utm_term=.9874f97ffa7a<\/span><\/p>\n

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