# Andrew McCabe Andrew George McCabe (b. March 18, 1968) is the **former Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation** (February 2016 – January 2018) and briefly **Acting Director** (May 9, 2017 – August 2, 2017) between James Comey's May 9, 2017 firing and [[Christopher Wray]]'s installation. McCabe's 21 years at the FBI (1996-2018) spanned counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and national-security investigations, and positioned him to be one of the principal officials inside the Bureau during the Russia counterintelligence investigation that Robert Mueller later took over as Special Counsel. McCabe is also **the senior federal law enforcement official who was fired by the Trump administration in one of the most politically contested circumstances of the Trump I period** — terminated on March 16, 2018, **26 hours before he would have become eligible to retire with full pension benefits** after an accelerated disciplinary process that itself became the subject of litigation and a subsequent partial restoration of his pension. McCabe matters for the KB for three reasons. First, his **brief Acting Director tenure** in May-August 2017 was the operational bridge between Comey's firing and Mueller's appointment as Special Counsel — the weeks in which the FBI's Russia counterintelligence investigation was transitioned from Comey-era leadership to Mueller's team. McCabe has publicly described, both in his 2019 memoir *The Threat* and in sworn congressional testimony, the discussion among senior DOJ officials about potentially invoking the **[[Twenty-Fifth Amendment]]** to remove Trump from office — a claim Rosenstein has disputed as mischaracterizing what was an off-hand comment. Second, his **firing by Jeff Sessions 26 hours before retirement eligibility** is one of the clearest case studies in the KB of the Trump administration's willingness to use disciplinary processes against perceived political opponents — the firing was widely understood as retaliation for McCabe's role in the Russia investigation and for Trump's personal animus toward him dating back to the 2016 campaign. Third, his **post-firing legal challenge** — which produced a settlement restoring most of his retirement benefits in October 2021 under the Biden Justice Department — is one of the most visible "restoration" outcomes for Trump-era personnel actions and is a piece of the documented pattern of Trump-era disciplinary actions that were later partially reversed. ## Background - Born March 18, 1968, in Queens, New York; raised in Smithtown, New York - BA from Duke University (1990) - JD from Washington University School of Law, St. Louis (1993) - Associate at Baker & McKenzie (1993-1996) - FBI Special Agent (1996-) beginning in the New York Field Office - Supervisory Special Agent, Counterterrorism Division at FBI Headquarters (post-9/11) - Special Agent in Charge, Washington Field Office (2012-2014) - Associate Deputy Director (2014-2016) - Deputy Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (February 2016 – January 29, 2018) - Acting Director (May 9, 2017 – August 2, 2017) - Terminated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 16, 2018 - CNN contributor (2019-present) - Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at George Mason University - Married to Dr. Jill McCabe, a pediatric emergency medicine physician ## The Jill McCabe Campaign and Trump's Animus A structural element of the McCabe-Trump conflict originated before McCabe became nationally visible. McCabe's wife Jill McCabe ran as a Democrat for the Virginia State Senate in 2015. Her campaign received **approximately $675,000 in contributions from a PAC associated with then-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe**, a close Clinton ally. Jill McCabe lost the race. Trump subsequently cited the McAuliffe contributions throughout 2016 and 2017 as evidence that McCabe was structurally biased against the Trump campaign in the FBI's Clinton email investigation (despite the fact that McCabe had formally recused himself from the email investigation a week before assuming the Deputy Director role). The Jill McCabe funding line became one of Trump's most consistent personal attacks on a named FBI official across three years. ## Acting Director Tenure (May-August 2017) After Trump's May 9, 2017 firing of Comey, McCabe served as Acting Director for nearly three months until Wray's confirmation. The tenure included: - **May 10, 2017**: The morning after Comey's firing, McCabe reportedly initiated both an **obstruction-of-justice investigation of Trump's firing of Comey** and a **counterintelligence investigation of whether Trump had been acting on behalf of Russia**. McCabe has publicly described the decisions; the counterintelligence investigation was transitioned into Mueller's team when Mueller was appointed - **The 25th Amendment discussion**: In subsequent interviews and in *The Threat*, McCabe has described Deputy Attorney General [[Rod Rosenstein]] raising the possibility of the 25th Amendment and of Rosenstein potentially wearing a wire in meetings with Trump to document erratic behavior. Rosenstein has publicly disputed the characterization, describing it as a sarcastic remark rather than a substantive proposal - **Congressional testimony (May 11, 2017)**: The day after Comey's firing, McCabe testified before the [[Senate Intelligence Committee]], publicly stating that the Russia investigation was not, as Trump had claimed, wrapping up; the testimony is one of the moments when the public understood the investigation was continuing - **Mueller transition (May 17, 2017)**: Rosenstein appointed Mueller as Special Counsel, and the investigation was transitioned to Mueller's team ## The Firing (March 16, 2018) The proximate sequence: - **January 29, 2018**: McCabe stepped down as Deputy Director but remained nominally on FBI payroll using accumulated leave until his March 18 retirement-eligibility date - **April 2018**: DOJ Office of the [[Inspector General]] published a report finding McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the *Wall Street Journal* about an FBI Clinton-email-investigation matter and had "lacked candor" to investigators when questioned about it - **March 16, 2018**: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, following the OIG report's recommendations and after the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility's disciplinary recommendation, fired McCabe 26 hours before his scheduled March 18 retirement — the timing maximized the pension consequences - **Trump's response**: Trump publicly celebrated the firing on Twitter and characterized it as evidence of McCabe's corruption ### The IG Report and the McCabe Response The OIG report's four findings of lack-of-candor were substantive and were the basis for the firing. McCabe's public response: - Acknowledged that the underlying disclosure to the *WSJ* was authorized by him and within his authority as Deputy Director - Disputed the characterization that he had been less than fully candid with investigators, arguing the record showed his descriptions were consistent with the underlying events - Filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit on August 8, 2019, arguing the firing was politically motivated retaliation rather than based on the disciplinary findings ### The Pension Restoration (October 2021) In October 2021 — under the Biden Justice Department — a settlement was reached: - McCabe's firing was formally rescinded - His full pension and federal benefits were restored - The settlement did not reach the merits of the OIG findings but resolved the dispute over the political-retaliation claims The pension restoration is one of the most visible post-Trump restorations of affected personnel, though the settlement structure (rescission rather than vindication on the merits) leaves the underlying OIG findings uncontested. ## *The Threat* (2019) and Post-FBI Position McCabe published *The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump* in February 2019. The book was a best-seller and included detailed accounts of: - The Trump-era FBI leadership tensions - The Comey firing and immediate aftermath - The Mueller investigation transition - McCabe's own interactions with Trump, including several reported personal meetings in which Trump pressed McCabe on his wife's campaign donors and on his political loyalties Since leaving the FBI, McCabe has been a CNN contributor and frequent media commentator on FBI and DOJ matters. He has been consistently critical of Trump administration personnel decisions and has testified before Congress on multiple occasions regarding Trump-era DOJ and FBI matters. ## Connection to the KB Ecosystem - **[[FBI]] / [[Robert Mueller]] / Russia investigation**: Principal operational figure in the FBI leadership transition from Comey to Mueller. - **[[Donald Trump]]**: Target of sustained personal animus dating to the 2016 campaign; subject of firing decision three years later. - **[[James Comey]]**: Predecessor; the Comey firing is the event that made McCabe Acting Director. - **[[Rod Rosenstein]]**: Contemporaneous Deputy Attorney General; the 25th Amendment / wire discussion is a contested element of both men's public records. - **[[Jeff Sessions]]**: Attorney General who executed the March 2018 firing. - **Deep state accusation target**: McCabe is one of the handful of named federal-law-enforcement officials that Trump and Trump-aligned media have repeatedly held up as evidence of a "deep state" operating against Trump. - **Post-Trump personnel restoration**: The October 2021 pension settlement is a documented case of Biden-era restoration of a Trump-era personnel action. - **The IG report and disciplinary process**: The substantive disciplinary findings and the firing's timing are simultaneously part of the record — the documented facts support multiple competing interpretations. ## See Also - [[Donald Trump]] - [[James Comey]] - [[Robert Mueller]] - [[Rod Rosenstein]] - [[Jeff Sessions]] - [[FBI]]