McCabe says he was fired as FBI deputy director because of what he witnessed after Trump fired Comey

REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

Andrew McCabe details the filing of civil forfeiture complaints in June.

• FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe says he was fired because of the events he witnessed in the "aftermath of the firing of James Comey."
• McCabe was one of three top FBI officials former FBI Director James Comey apprised of his conversations with President Donald Trump.
• Comey was fired last May. His firing - and his conversations with Trump - now make up the basis of the special counsel Robert Mueller's obstruction-of-justice investigation.

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said Friday that he was fired from the bureau because of the events he "witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey."

McCabe was one of three top FBI officials former FBI Director James Comey apprised of his conversations with President Donald Trump. Comey's interactions with Trump are now an integral part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump sought to obstruct justice when he fired Comey last May.

McCabe's lawyer, Michael Bromwich, used to serve as the DOJ's Inspector General and said in a statement that he had "never before seen the type of rush to judgment - and rush to summary punishment - that we have witnessed in this case."

McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year amid an internal investigation by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into his approval of unauthorized disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's Hillary Clinton email probe.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general Michael Horowitz reportedly concluded in a report that McCabe was not forthcoming during the OIG review. The FBI Office of Personal Responsibility (OPR) subsequently recommended that Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire McCabe, according to The New York Times.

McCabe met with several senior DOJ officials on Thursday to make a final appeal not to be fired just days before his retirement. He met with the department's senior-most career attorney but did not meet with Sessions, who was traveling at the time.

Sessions said in a statement Friday that "both the OIG and FBI OPR reports concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news med and lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions."

He continued: "Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI's Office of Personal Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department's senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately."