FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Leave Until Retirement in March
Will officially retire mid-March
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe announced Monday he will be on leave until he officially retires in March.
From NBC News:
McCabe will remain on the FBI payroll until he is eligible to retire with full benefits in mid-March, the sources said.
One source familiar said McCabe was exercising his retirement eligibility and characterized his decision as “stepping aside.”
McCabe has been at the center of ongoing tensions between the White House and the FBI and has reportedly been under pressure to quit from President Donald Trump, whose campaign is being investigated for possible collusion with Russia.
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that after Trump had fired FBI Director James Comey, he met with McCabe in the Oval Office and asked him whom he voted for in the 2016 election.
Trump, the officials told The Post, also vented his anger at McCabe over hundreds of thousand dollars in donations that his wife, a Democrat, received for her failed 2015 Virginia state Senate bid from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Hillary Clinton.
A long-time career servant, McCabe had served at the FBI since 1996 under former directors Robert Mueller and Comey.
Trump was asked on Monday whether he knew McCabe was stepping aside and the president did not answer.
But is McCabe departing the bureau voluntarily? All signs point to probably not.
According to an expanded report by Fox News, McCabe was allegedly involved in one too many controveries, ultimately leading to early retirement.
Most notably, McCabe was reportedly mentioned in the surveillance memo House GOPers are hoping to make public.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week that his chief of staff, James Rybicki, was leaving the bureau. Department of Justice officials also told Fox News that Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who is also the acting head of the DOJ’s National Security division, has been selected to step in as the FBI’s next general counsel. James Baker, who had served as general counsel, was reassigned late last year.
McCabe’s name has surfaced in connection with several other controversies.
The Daily Beast reported that a GOP memo alleging government surveillance abuse named McCabe, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and ex-FBI boss James Comey.
Incidentally, the McCabe removal comes after Wray viewed the memo Sunday on Capitol Hill, as reported by Fox News’ Catherine Herridge. The removal also comes ahead of a DOJ inspector general report regarding the handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe.
Several Republicans also want to know what McCabe knew about anti-Trump text messages between two bureau officials, including one that seemed to reference an “insurance policy” against Trump winning the 2016 election.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office – that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Peter Strzok texted on Aug. 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
Some lawmakers think “Andy” was a reference to McCabe.
And this seems to add credence to the speculation:
We r told that Mr. Wray found something concerning in pending IG report and he was going to move McCabe into another job, which was effectively a demotion. Instead, McCabe decided to leave the FBI. https://t.co/ebZrnf9w2z
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) January 29, 2018
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Trump should fire him before he’s able to retire
I agree.
Now that he’s, practically speaking, not working any more, there are no political repercussions for firing him.
Fire him now so that he doesn’t get his full pension.
Also…let’s see that memo.
Also pertinent to this matter:
“Hours After FBI Director Chris Wray Reviews House Intel Memo, Asst. FBI Director McCabe Resigns…”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/29/hours-after-fbi-director-chris-wray-reviews-house-intel-memo-asst-fbi-director-mccabe-resigns/
“House Could (And Probably Will) Vote to #ReleaseTheMemo Today or Tonight”
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=373589
“…it is not coincidental that now the Justice Department has had an opportunity to preview the Nunes memo content, we begin seeing leaks about it in the New York Times.
The Black Hat operatives within the DOJ and FBI are desperate to get out ahead of the stories.
Think about it. The Nunes memo was available to congress for over a week, and not a single -substantive- material leak came out. Yet, within HOURS of the Justice Department having access to the memo, the New York Times is writing about specific details contained within the memo:…”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/29/hours-after-fbi-director-chris-wray-reviews-house-intel-memo-asst-fbi-director-mccabe-resigns/
Interesting, interesting…
“New Book: McCabe Initiated White House Meeting That Led To Leak”
http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/29/new-book-mccabe-initiated-white-house-meeting-that-led-to-leak/#.Wm9H4uvGxKQ.twitter
“BREAKING and IMPORTANT – Details Surface of Senator Grassley’s Criminal Referral….”
“It is important to understand what Chairman Chuck Grassley has done with the criminal referral and how he is calling out the FBI. Taken at it’s face value, which is what the tweet does, it seems that Christopher Steele lied to the FBI by saying the “dossier” information was not shared with media, therefore the dossier was not opposition campaign research.
The intent of this FBI claim (to the FISA court) is to give the “dossier” enhanced value as source material for a FISA warrant (request for surveillance authority). However, the underlying facts behind the FBI assertion are false; and it’s not Steele making the claim.
The FBI is the entity attempting to inflate the credibility of the application by claiming Chris Steele never shopped the dossier, ergo it is not political opposition research. There is ZERO evidence Steele made any such claim to the FBI. There is ample evidence to the exact opposite….”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/29/breaking-and-important-details-surface-of-senator-grassleys-criminal-referral/#more-145156
Firing him might be giving away the leverage needed to get him to turn evidence against the others.
Precisely.
That may have already happened… Reports are that he left on “amicable” terms.
Basically, he’s got enough accrued vacation that he just took it. It’s called “terminal leave”.
Except for harassing innocent civilians, his entire career has been an extended vacation. This guy is a true POS.
Yeah, screw with a guy who knows where a lot of bodies are buried.
Those are all bodies your commie brethren buried.
We’re in the process of digging them up.
Yellow tail:
That’s exactly right: let’s see where the bodies are buried.
Unlike soviet-style fascists, we want transparency.
Great point: he knows where all the DEMOCRAT bodies are buried. He sure as shit doesn’t have anything on Trump, or he would’ve already leaked it.
We should squeeze this guy like we’re making lemonade.
Screw this guy and his pension: make him turn state’s witness before he gets a dime – if he gets a dime at all.
Another domino falls.
He’s decided to spend more time with his leaks.
How about indicting him now?
Patience. The corruption is way bigger than one small fry.
True, and it overflows out of the big DC and Chicago swamps to the state swamps, the county swamps and the city and village swamps….
“not working anymore”
Oh I suspect he’s still working, just not for the American people.
“Give away leverage”
I wonder if he’s ever publicly expressed his opinion on waterboarding. Necessary and humane interrogation tool?
Didn’t Trump say, “No Deal? So does this mean that there was a “deal”. Makes me wonder if he cut a deal.
“Trump was asked on Monday whether he knew McCabe was stepping aside and the president did not answer.”
Forced out per Fox and CBS, the day after his boss reads the memo. He’s already implicated via the Strzok texts so its not looking good for this boy.
Did he ever work for we the people or has he always been a demonrat/prog tool?
This is all so frustrating. Yay we got a Deep State agent to resign. Woohoo. Fist bump.
But we’ve seen this movie a dozen times. Vader lost to the Dark Side. Obi One down. Alderan… gone. Han executed by his own son. uke drunk on despair, sulking on the edge of the galaxy. Generations of cycling strife and hope, millions of lived wasted and lost.
I wanted to poison the Emporer at his High School Prom but noooooo. We’re the good guys blah principle blah blah Rule of Law.
This is ALL on sessions. Let’s see where he takes it.
The problem is, Sessions did screw up by allowing the perception of the leftist media’s lies to be cemented in the minds of their useful idiots, like Hawaii air raid warden jamie lee curtis.
Air raid warden curtis and her dummy ilk will merely look to msnbc to know how to think the day after the scandal is blown.
People like curtis’ egos are on the line. The last thing they want to do is look in the mirror and see a dummy. They’d rather see the rest of us go down the drain first.
If McCabe was in fact forced out, then the FBI or DOJ (whoever did the forcing) should issue a statement to that effect. Anything else is cowardice and obfuscation. Why should McCabe get a pass? If he did something that led to his “removal,” what he did should not be hidden or sugarcoated.
Folks are talking about McCabe’s service to the country and the FBI. Who freakin’ knows if that service was all that good. My guess is that he’s been working his own personal and political agenda throughout his career and getting away with it because of the corrupt culture within the agency.
If McCabe was removed, a signal should have been sent so that everyone—especially the citizens who pay the bills—understands that such behavior is unacceptable.
Instead, McCabe gets a pat on the back, a gold watch, and walks away with no disgrace for his actions, actions that hurt our country.
Makes me mad.
“Patience. The corruption is way bigger than one small fry.”
OMGoodness!
President Trump: “How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-29/trump-mccabe-ask-your-wife-how-it-feels-be-loser
Reports now coming out say McCabe did not go quietly. Shouting ensued. Because his electronics were taken from his control, I presume.
To misquote John “Hanibal” Smith of The A Team… “I most love it when a plan falls apart!”
Ehh, “just love it”, not “most love it”.
Wonder if he’s under the FERS or CERS retirement system. If the old CERS, there’s a pretty major ding for getting out before you’re eligible, but the new FERS allows a more gradual cliff, plus FERS employees have paid into Social Security so they can draw from that also. (CERS employees did not pay SS, but paid pretty hefty chunks to the system instead. FERS is more or less a booster for SS, but they’re both pension-type instead of cash-type retirement.)
The left is absolutely going ballistic. Their main source in the Febbies is out on his tin ear. It won’t be long before they start claiming Trump fired him, shouting “Obstruction of Justice.!” Now to get rid of Rosenstein and the rest of the Obozo – Clintoon cabal.
He will never see his pension.
He is about to be indicted.
I don’t remember *any* Federal employee being stripped of pension benefits upon conviction for anything, although it seems Feds and members of Congress *can* have their pensions stripped for convictions on corruption, election crimes, and other misconduct directly relating to their assigned duties. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, although I’m fairly sure the Dems will weep and wail about the unfairness for decades.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/228002-grimm-could-keep-federal-pension-despite-any-conviction
Tell the ‘dreamers’ they can have it in lieu of other federal benefits.
Let me put this into perspective.
First, though it might be possible to fire McCabe, it is likely that federal civil service rule would entitle him to a hearing. At this time, there may not be sufficient evidence to successfully uphold a termination.
Second, the FBI, and DOJ, do not want to chance where a termination hearing might lead. They leadership does not want to further tarnish the image of the FBI and there exists the possibility that such a hearing would drag other, as yet unknown, people into the quick sand. Traditionally, the FBI has simply forced embarrassing employees to go away, or else.
One thing to always remember about Christopher Wray. He is an establishment attorney. His interest is largely in protecting the establishment. He was Chris Christie’s attorney during bridgegate. He was UNANIMOUSLY recommended for the position of FBI Director by the Senate Judiciary Committee and confirmed by a vote of 92-5 in the Senate.
“His interest is largely in protecting the establishment.”
True.
I suspect his ability to protect is soon to be tested. He can no more change or cover up the events than the man on the moon.
He should be fired and charged with any abuses that are provable,PERIOD.
I, for one, am so happy to follow Nunez off the cliff. Aren’t you all?
I, for one, am so happy to follow Nunez off the cliff. Aren’t you all?