In an extensive interview conducted earlier this month, then-FBI official Andrew McCabe revealed to POLITICO that he pressured Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel after FBI Director James Comey was fired.
McCabe admits he pressured Rosenstein to appoint special counsel. https://t.co/YIx63fi4kk via @politico
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) March 17, 2018
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POLITICO reports:
McCabe said that when he was tapped as acting FBI director after Trump fired James Comey on May 9, 2017, he also learned that “I might not be in the position for a long time.”
“I literally walked into the building every day expecting that I would be removed from my position before the end of the day,” he added. “And if that happened, I didn’t want anyone to be able to just walk away from the work that we had done” on the Russia investigation.
One step McCabe said he took then: pressing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for a special counsel. Another step: briefing congressional leaders in both parties, who get highly classified briefings as the so-called Gang of Eight, about what he was doing.
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The Justice Department’s inspector general was already conducting a sweeping inquiry into the FBI’s decision-making process in closing its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server, then disclosing the discovery of new Clinton emails in a message to Congress in late October 2016.
On Friday evening, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on the recommendation of FBI disciplinary officials.
“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,” Sessions said in a statement.
“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’,” Sessions added.
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McCabe released a statement following the news of his termination. The disgraced ex-FBI official “claimed he was being singled out for what he witnessed in the aftermath of Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey,” reports Kristinn Taylor of The Gateway Pundit.
Screenshot Credit: Kristinn Taylor
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