Donald Trump has celebrated the sacking of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe who was fired two days before his retirement date.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday sacked Mr McCabe who described the move as part of the US President’s “war on the FBI”.
The decision was made on the recommendation of FBI disciplinary officials and came just two days before Mr McCabe was set to retire after 20 years of service.
It comes ahead of an inspector general report expected to conclude that Mr McCabe was not forthcoming with the watchdog office as it reviewed the bureau's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Though Mr McCabe had spent more than 20 years as a career FBI official, Mr Trump repeatedly condemned him over the last year as emblematic of an FBI leadership he contends is biased against his administration.
Mr Trump, who had long called for his sacking but said it was up to Mr Sessions, tweeted: “Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!”
"The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability," Mr Sessions said in a Friday night statement.
In an extraordinary rebuttal released immediately after the attorney general's announcement, Mr McCabe said his credibility had been attacked as "part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally" but also the FBI and law enforcement.
"It is part of this administration's ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the special counsel investigation, which continue to this day," he added, referring to Robert Mueller's ongoing probe into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
"Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the special counsel's work."
Mr McCabe also asserted that he was being singled out because of the "role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey."
Mr McCabe said the release of the findings against him was accelerated after he told congressional officials that he could corroborate Mr Comey's accounts of his conversations with the president.
Mr McCabe came under particular scrutiny over an October 2016 news report that revealed differing approaches within the FBI and Justice Department over how aggressively the Clinton Foundation should be investigated. The watchdog office has concluded that Mr McCabe authorized FBI officials to speak to a Wall Street Journal reporter for that story and that he had not been forthcoming with investigators, which Mr McCabe denies.
Evening Standard
