NBC News is reporting that Andrew McCabe, FBI Deputy Director, has stepped down from his role today, but will remain on the FBI payroll until mid-March – at which time he is expected to receive full retirement benefits. NBC News has not identified their source, saying only that it is was “multiple sources familiar with the matter.”
McCabe was sworn in as Acting Deputy Director on May 9, 2017 after President Donald Trump fired James Comey, the previous FBI Director. On August 2, 2017, Christopher Wray was sworn in as FBI Director and McCabe returned to the position of Deputy Director. McCabe oversaw the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she served as President Obama’s Secretary of State. Since Trump’s inauguration and the investigation regarding possible Russian interference with the 2016 election, McCabe has been at odds with President Trump and many Republicans. On December 24, 2017 Trump tweeted, “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?” On January 23, 2018 the Washington Post reported that, according to “several current and former U.S. officials” President Trump asked McCabe “whom he voted for in the 2016 election.”
McCabe’s decision to take a leave until his retirement comes as CNN reported that the House Intelligence Committee could vote as early as this evening to publicly release the Republican memo alleging abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and four days after President Trump told reporters that he, subject to the advice of his lawyers, he would talk, under oath, with special counsel Mueller.
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Like Nixon, Trump will do everything he can to discredit the FBI investigating him.