Democrat calls for ‘open hearings’ on Trump administration after McCabe firing
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN – 03/17/18 09:06 AM EDT
A House Democrat is calling for Republicans to hold hearings on the Trump administration after the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
“Firing Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe at 10pm on a Friday night is an attack on law enforcement staggering in both its cowardice and vindictiveness,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said in a statement. “The White House has shown yet again that it will stop at nothing to discredit the FBI and, through it, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.”
“Congressional Republican leadership must now have the courage to hold open hearings on the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to undermine the rule of law and those who uphold it,” he continued. “To do any less would be to betray the principles that truly make America great.”
Krishnamoorthi sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which interviewed McCabe earlier this year.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on Friday night, two days before McCabe would have retired and become eligible for his pension.
Sessions said that McCabe hadn’t been forthcoming with investigators and made an unauthorized disclosure to the media.
McCabe said that he was fired to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller, and that he was one of a few Justice Department officials authorized to share information with the media.
“The OIG’s focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn,” McCabe said in a statement.
President Trump has repeatedly attacked the FBI, claiming that leadership in the agency is biased against him.