From Newsmax

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who has received blistering criticism from President Donald Trump, has stepped down and will be on leave until he retires sometime in the spring, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

Trump and some Republican lawmakers have increasingly argued there’s evidence that past officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including McCabe, were biased toward Democrat Hillary Clinton and against Trump in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

Fox News is reporting that McCabe was “removed” from his post.

However, the White House on Monday said it has nothing to do with McCabe’s departure from the law enforcement agency.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the White House was not involved in McCabe’s decision to leave weeks before his planned retirement.

She says, “The president wasn’t part of this decision-making process.”

But Sanders says President Donald Trump stands by his criticism of McCabe, who played a central role in the Hillary Clinton email probe and the ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

McCabe’s wife had received campaign donations from then-Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a 2015 state Senate bid, drawing multiple Twitter attacks from the Republican president.

Sanders says the White House has “some concerns” over McCabe’s work at the bureau.

Several former Justice Department and FBI officials were quick to defend McCabe and decry the circumstances surrounding his departure.

Former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts, who served on a bureau joint terrorism task force and as a consultant to its Counterterrorism Division, defended McCabe on Twitter.

“Andy McCabe dedicated his life to serving his country, leading countless investigations protecting American lives, in return he’s been bullied by politicians & battered by parts of the American public — a travesty,” he wrote.

Last week, Trump told reporters he didn’t remember asking McCabe — then acting FBI director — whom he voted for in the 2016 presidential election shortly after the president fired former FBI Director James Comey. The Washington Post reported that the conversation with McCabe is of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion with Russia during the campaign and potential obstruction of justice.

“I don’t think so. No, I don’t think I did. I don’t know what’s the big deal with that, because I asked — I would ask you, ‘Who did you vote for?’ But I don’t remember that,” Trump told reporters. “I don’t remember asking him the question. I also think it is a very unimportant question.”

On Monday, the president ignored shouted questions from reporters about McCabe.

McCabe’s departure from the bureau was expected some time after he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits in March.

Trump tweeted in late December, “FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!”

The official next in line to become acting FBI director is David Bowdich, who currently serves as associate deputy director. However, FBI Director Christopher Wray will be able to choose a permanent deputy from the career ranks of senior bureau officials.

Political Controversies

McCabe’s tenure has become entangled in recent years in politically charged controversies, including the investigation into Clinton’s use of private email when she was secretary of state, and the ongoing criminal probe into Russian interference.

Most recently, House Republicans demanded to know what discussions McCabe might have had in 2016 with two FBI officials who exchanged text messages critical of Trump. One of them referred to a meeting in “Andy’s office” where they discussed “that there’s no way” Trump would be elected but “we can’t take that risk.”

McCabe also came under Republican criticism in 2016 when he helped oversee the Clinton email investigation even though his wife had accepted donations from Democratic political organizations for an unsuccessful election bid in 2015 to the Virginia state senate.

The FBI said in a statement at the time that McCabe “played no role” in his wife’s campaign “and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind.”

“He ought to be replaced. And I’ve said that before and I’ve said it to people who can do it,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said on Dec. 19, the day before McCabe was interviewed behind closed doors by the House Intelligence Committee.

McCabe joined the FBI in 1996 and held management positions in the counterterrorism division and the Washington field office. He became the FBI’s acting director after Comey was fired in May, and served in that role until Aug. 2 when Wray took charge.

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