美国司法部长塞申斯星期五晚上发布声明说,前美国联邦调查局副局长安德鲁·麦凯布(Andrew McCabe)被开除公职,立即生效。
曾经是联调局二把手的麦凯布曾经被川普总统公开批评有政治偏见。有报道说,川普总统早就想解雇他。麦凯布1月30号卸去副局长的职务,计划星期天、也是他的生日那天退休,享受所有退休福利。但是,他现在被解雇,他的部分、甚至全部退休金能否保留都成问题。
美国2016年大选前夕,麦凯布卷入一场争议。他的妻子2015年作为民主党人竞选维吉尼亚州参议员的时候从民主党总统候选人希拉里·克林顿的朋友、当时维吉尼亚州长特里·麦考利夫控制的政治行动委员会的捐款里拿了数十万美元。
当时是共和党总统候选人的川普根据这个消息质疑联邦调查局在调查希拉克使用私人电邮服务器问题上的公正性。后来联调局拒绝对希拉里·克林顿提出刑事指控。
联邦调查局当时说,麦凯布咨询了联调局负责职业操守的官员,他和联调局律师设立了一个回避系统,让他回避一切联调局有关维吉尼亚州政治活动的调查。
川普总统解聘联调局长科米的职务后,司法部长塞申斯让麦凯布担任代理局长。
麦凯布星期五晚上对他被解雇的消息做出回应说,由于他看到川普解雇科米过程中发生的一些事,所以成为被打击的目标。
麦凯布在联调局工作了22年。
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has been fired — effective immediately, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement released late Friday.
McCabe, at one time the No. 2 official in the agency whom President Donald Trump has publicly criticized for alleged political bias and reportedly wanted fired, stepped down from the agency Jan. 30. He had planned to retire on Sunday — his birthday — with full benefits. However, now that he has been fired, some or all of his pension could be at risk.
McCabe was thrust into controversy just days before the 2016 presidential election when it was disclosed that his wife, Jill McCabe, a Democratic candidate for a seat in the Virginia Senate in 2015, had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from a political action committee controlled by a friend of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — then-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.
Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, used the disclosure to question the FBI’s impartiality in investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server, before it declined to bring criminal charges against her.
At the time, the FBI said that McCabe had consulted bureau ethics officials and that he and FBI lawyers “implemented a system of recusal from all FBI investigative matters involving Virginia politics.”
After Trump abruptly fired then-FBI Director James Comey over the Russia investigation in May 2017, Attorney General Sessions elevated McCabe to acting director.
McCabe responded to the news late Friday, saying he believed he was being “singled out” for things he witnessed when Trump fired Comey.
McCabe served 22 years with the FBI.