Fired FBI Deputy Director McCabe’s statement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired the FBI’s former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Friday, prompting a rebuke from McCabe who said he is facing political retaliation by President Donald Trump.

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Here are some of the highlights of his lengthy statement:

I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years…

For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country.

Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us.

The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He 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. 

No more.

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 investigation flows from my attempt to explain the FBI’s involvement and my supervision of investigations involving Hillary Clinton. I was being portrayed in the media over and over as a political partisan…

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…   

The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor.

As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret…

It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week….

The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth…

I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them….

The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people. 

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.

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…

This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. 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. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work….

To have my career end in this way, and to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair…

I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Nick Macfie)