The firing of disgraced former FBI official Andrew McCabe is hitting full view, as President Donald Trump tweeted about the McCabe firing after McCabe put out a statement following his firing late Friday night.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired disgraced former FBI official Andrew McCabe late Friday night for misconduct at the recommendation of an internal, impartial FBI department report from the Office of Professional Responsibility.
McCabe had been at the FBI for 22 years and recently was its Acting Director and Deputy Director.
The report is said to come to the conclusion that McCabe purposefully 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.
There are also external allegations that McCabe slow-walked and tried to shelve a FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton because McCabe’s wife received a little under $500,000 in political donations from a network of close Clinton allies.
The firing comes just days before McCabe’s intended retirement to claim full retirement benefits. Some are saying that the firing is unfair and Sessions should have let McCabe retire on his own timeline but others are applauding the firing saying government officials should not get special treatment.
After the firing Friday night, McCabe released a statement:
“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.
“For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country,” McCabe continued. “Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us. No more.”
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
Attorney General Sessions’ full statement reads:
“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).
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.
The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability. As the OPR proposal stated, ‘all FBI employees know that lacking candor under oath results in dismissal and that our integrity is our brand.’
Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”
