Officials familiar with the process say the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, has recommended the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who is still on the federal payroll.
WASHINGTON — The FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility has recommended the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who remains on the payroll — a move that could put the veteran official's pension at risk, according to officials familiar with the process.
The recommendation is now before Attorney General Jeff Sessions. OPR has already determined that McCabe should be fired and it's now up to Sessions whether to reverse that recommendation or to accept it.
McCabe is due to retire this weekend. If Sessions were to fire him before then, it would place McCabe's federal pension at risk.
The Department of Justice won't comment directly, but did issue a statement: "The Department follows a prescribed process by which an employee may be terminated. That process includes recommendations from career employees and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process. We have no personnel announcements at this time."
The OPR recommendation follows an internal report from the DOJ inspector general, which concluded that McCabe was not fully forthcoming in answers about whether he talked to a reporter about the FBI's investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
Officials familiar with what's happening say Sessions will act on the OPR finding soon. The expectation is that he will accept it and fire McCabe.
President Donald Trump has been critical of McCabe and even tweeted that he was "racing the clock" in an attempt to retire with full benefits. The president has also made derogatory references to the fact that McCabe's wife, who ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in Virginia, received large campaign donations from Democrats linked to Hillary and Bill Clinton.