Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe is stepping down, Breitbart News has confirmed.
He will remain on “leave” until spring, when he can officially retire from the FBI.
According to Fox News, McCabe was “removed.” A source told the news outlet that this was the earliest date possible for the FBI to remove him and still leave him fully eligible for his pension. A CNN reporter has also shared this version of events.
McCabe’s departure has been expected for months. ABC News reported last year that McCabe planned to retire in March 2018, when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits.
His early departure also comes just a day after FBI Director Christopher Wray reviewed a memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee staffers that reportedly details FBI abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), in connection with its investigation of the 2016 presidential election.
The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote on releasing the classified memo on Monday.
The memo is expected to say that FBI officials obtained a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page based on the unverified Trump dossier created by Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS as Democratic opposition research.
Democrats and the FBI have been fighting the release of the memo, saying it would be “reckless” to do so.
McCabe has come under scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who have questioned why he only recused himself from the Clinton email investigation a week before the election when his wife had received hundreds of thousands in campaign donations from a close Hillary Clinton ally.
McCabe was appointed FBI Deputy Director in 2016 by former President Obama, and became acting director in May 2016, after President Trump fired James Comey.