Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe slammed former President Donald Trump after winning back his full pension as part of a settlement of his lawsuit arising from his firing by Trump's justice department.
McCabe, a frequent target of Trump who called him 'a poor man's J. Edgar Hoover' and 'a disgrace,' was fired in March 2018 after the Justice Department's inspector general concluded he had authorized the release of information to a newspaper reporter and then misled internal investigators about his role in the leak.
The termination by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions came hours before McCabe was due to retire, denying his pension.
The settlement agreement vacates that decision, expunges from his personnel folder any references to having been fired and entitles McCabe, who joined the FBI in 1996, to his full pension.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe slammed former President Donald Trump after winning back his full pension as part of a settlement of his lawsuit arising from his firing by Trump's justice department
McCabe, a frequent target of Trump who called him 'a poor man's J. Edgar Hoover' and 'a disgrace,' was fired in March 2018
The termination by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions came hours before McCabe was due to retire, denying his pension
In a statement, McCabe felt vindicated.
'Politics should never play a role in the fair administration of justice and civil service personnel decisions,' McCabe said in a statement. He added that he hopes 'this result encourages the men and women of the FBI to continue to protect the American people by standing up for the truth and doing their jobs without fear of political retaliation.'
However, in an appearance on CNN later Thursday with Anderson Cooper, McCabe went after Trump for his treatment of himself and his family.
'It was so bizarre. To know that you have a target on your back from the most powerful person in the world ... it was upside-down world. I can't even describe how terrifying and annoying and humiliating it is. That's what he subjected people to for four years,' McCabe said.
He added that he blames not just Sessions, but the rest of his DOJ and the FBI for the original decision. He hopes this judgement in his favor prevents it from happening again.
In an appearance on CNN later Thursday with Anderson Cooper, McCabe went after Trump for his treatment of himself and his family
He also blamed the FBI and DOJ for 'complying' with the Trump administrations' whims
He criticized the entire DOJ, including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
'It's a great thing for my family, but it's a message to government employees and civil servants everywhere, this is the [Biden] DOJ standing up for fairness and the rule of law,' he said. 'They agree members of the exec branch shouldn't interfere in internal matters.'
McCabe has denied intentionally deceiving anyone, was never criminally charged and has blasted his firing as politically motivated and part of the Trump administration's 'ongoing war on the FBI.'
The trouble for McCabe began on May 9, 2017, when he sat down with internal investigators to talk about a different leak to a media organization, Circa.
McCabe has denied intentionally deceiving anyone, was never criminally charged and has blasted his firing as politically motivated and part of the Trump administration's 'ongoing war on the FBI'
Trump at one point said that he was 'racing' McCabe to retirement
FBI Director Christopher Wray was among those who McCabe said made this decision political
The agents also asked McCabe about a Oct. 30, 2016 story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal headlined, 'FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe.'
The story detailed 'tensions' within the FBI and the Department of Justice on the heels of the discovery that there were more of Clinton's emails on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner prompting the bureau to reopen the closed investigation that had haunted her presidential campaign.
With just days to the 2016 election, then FBI Director James Comey had written a letter to Congress saying the probe had been reopened, creating a media frenzy that bogged down the Clinton campaign. The Wall Street Journal story insinuated that not everybody at the FBI was happy with Comey's decision.
