White House Calls FBI's McCabe `Bad Actor' Amid Firing Debate

(Bloomberg) -- White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe a ‘bad actor,’ as Attorney General Jeff Sessions decides whether to fire the official just days before he’s scheduled to retire and start drawing a pension.

Sessions is reviewing a recommendation from the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility that McCabe should be fired immediately for misleading Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive personnel matter.

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have railed against McCabe in part for his role in the FBI’s decision not to charge Democrat Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information by using private email when she was secretary of State. He has been on leave until his retirement takes effect on March 18.

“We do think it is well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor and should have some calls for concern,” Sanders said Thursday in a briefing for reporters. But she said it will be up to Sessions whether McCabe is allowed to retire.

McCabe, 49, came under Republican criticism in 2016 because he helped oversee the Clinton email investigation even though his wife had accepted donations from Democratic political organizations for an unsuccessful campaign in 2015 for the Virginia state senate.

McCabe joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1996 and held management positions in the counterterrorism division and the Washington field office. He became the FBI’s acting director after Trump fired James Comey in May, serving in that role until Aug. 2 when Christopher Wray took charge.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net, Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning

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