Donald Trump took some time out of the holiday weekend to blast FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, amid reports that McCabe would retire from the agency in early March.
Trump’s latest Twitter attack was in response to a Saturday report in the Washington Post, in which sources claimed McCabe intends to retire as soon as he becomes eligible for pension benefits; however, as pointed out by the Associated Press, Trump’s tweet about McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, isn’t exactly accurate.
McCabe never received $700,000 for his wife’s 2015 Virgina state Senate campaign. Jill McCabe actually received $467,500 from a political action committee led by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has close ties to the Clintons. The Virginia Democratic Party, which is greatly influenced by McAuliffe, also donated $207,788 to the campaign; however, it’s also important to note that the money was given before McCabe took on the deputy director role and began to oversee the Clinton email investigation. Trump and many GOP members have tried to discredit McCabe by pointing out his wife’s association with McAuliffe, who is associated with Clinton.
Democrats, however, argue these attacks and criticism are way for the GOP to undermine the FBI and Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
But McCabe wasn’t the only FBI official to get called out by Trump on Saturday night.
POTUS also singled out FBI attorney James Baker. There have been reports that he will be reassigned to another post within the agency.
On Friday, Politico published a story about House Republican’s growing concerns with Baker’s contacts with a Mother Jones reporter, just weeks before the site broke a story about the infamous Russian dossier.
According to the Washington Post, Baker “had been caught up in a strange interagency dispute that led to a leak probe and attracted the attention of senior lawmakers,” but sources claimed this did not play a part in his reassignment.
