U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 16 accepted the recommendation of the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility to dismiss former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, multiple media outlets reported March 17.
McCabe stepped down from his post in January but remained on the federal payroll. He was set to retire March 18 when he turns 50 and would have been eligible to receive retirement benefits, NBC News reported.
McCabe's dismissal was recommended by the bureau based on the findings of the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General following an investigation into allegations of misconduct by McCabe, according to the report.
"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.
McCabe had been under an internal review that includes the FBI's investigation in 2016 into Hillary Clinton's misuse of a private email server while she was secretary of state and President Donald Trump's campaign's alleged ties to Russia, BBC News noted.
In a lengthy statement published by Reuters and other media outlets, McCabe rejected the allegations against him, alleging that he was being politically targeted and facing retaliation by Trump.
"The investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility... The FBI was portrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes… Nothing was further from the truth. In fact, this entire investigation stems from my efforts, fully authorized under FBI rules, to set the record straight on behalf of the Bureau," McCabe said.
"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 [former FBI Director] James Comey," McCabe added.
McCabe served as acting director after James Comey was fired by Trump in 2017.
