Andrew McCabe

Andrew George McCabe is an American attorney who served as the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from February 2016 to January 2018. McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 16, 2018, 26 hours before his scheduled retirement. In September 2019, federal prosecutors recommended McCabe be indicted for actions relating to the leak. In August 2020, George Mason University announced McCabe would be joining the faculty of the Schar School of Policy and Government as Distinguished Visiting Professor.

About Andrew McCabe in brief

Summary Andrew McCabeAndrew George McCabe is an American attorney who served as the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from February 2016 to January 2018. McCabe joined the FBI as a special agent in 1996 and served with the bureau’s SWAT team. McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 16, 2018, 26 hours before his scheduled retirement. In September 2019, federal prosecutors recommended McCabe be indicted for actions relating to the leak. On February 14, 2020, the Justice Department informed McCabe’s attorneys that it had declined to prosecute McCabe. In August 2020, George Mason University announced McCabe would be joining the faculty of the Schar School of Policy and Government as Distinguished Visiting Professor. McCabe is a graduate of The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1986. He graduated from Duke University in 1990 and obtained a J. D. degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1993. During law school he interned in the criminal division of the United States Department of Justice. He became a supervisory special agent at the FBI in 2003 and held management positions of increasing responsibility until he was appointed Deputy Director in February 2016. McCabe secured the arrest of Ahmed Abu Khattala for suspected involvement in the 2012 Benghazi attack. In 2009, he served as first director of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, a program to research interrogation techniques that was created after the Department of Defense Directive 2310 ban of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques. In March 2018, it was reported that, upon receiving a referral from Congress in 2017, McCabe had authorized a criminal investigation into whether Sessions had lied to Congress about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak; the investigation was later closed.

On May 9, 2017,. McCabe became acting director of. the FBI after Trump dismissed Comey as director. In the absence of a Senate-confirmed director, the deputy director automatically becomes acting director. However, no interim director was named, and McCabe remained as Acting Director. Christopher A. Wray was ultimately nominated as the new Director on June 7, 2017 and confirmed on August 1, 2017, at which point McCabe reverted to his new position. In a February 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, McCabe said that he ordered the probe of possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, taking action to protect the Russian-interference investigation. He said he wanted to make sure that if somebody came in behind me and closed it, they would not be able to do that without creating a record of why they made that decision. McCabe said he also had concerns about whether Trump had been working on behalf of Russian interests, causing him to terminate anyone who might terminate it, because he might be removed from their positions. On July 31, 2016, the FBI opened its Crossfire Hurricane investigation intoWhether the Trump campaign was collaborating with the Russian government. After Trump was elected, he was also briefed on the investigation. McCabe visited the White House for an introductory meeting in the Oval Office with the president, during which time he reportedly asked McCabe who he had voted for in the 2016 election.