Minutes after news broke that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had fired the Deputy Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe released a lengthy statement, blaming President Donald Trump for what he says is a politically-motivated termination.
President Trump “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,” McCabe said in his statement, which ABC News published. “No more.”
“Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey’s accounts of his discussions with the President,” his statement charges.
“The OIG’s focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only when viewed through this lens. Thursday’s comments from the White House are just the latest example of this. “
President Trump indeed, very publicly, called for McCabe’s firing and for him to new stripped of his pension:
Image by FBI via Flickr