March 24, 2018

Fired FBI Director Andrew McCabe Fires Back at Donald Trump

“Not in my worst nightmares did I ever dream my FBI career would end this way.”

Andrew McCabe testifies on Capitol Hill on May 11, 2017.Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was fired less than two days before his retirement, finally responded to President Trump in a Washington Post op-ed.

McCabe accused the president of “cruelty” and said he learned of his firing third-hand, from a friend who first heard the news from a CNN report. “I had been fired in the most disembodied, impersonal way,” McCabe wrote, adding “Not in my worst nightmares did I ever dream my FBI career would end this way.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe just days before he was due to receive retirement benefits. He was accused of “lack of candor” for misleading investigators about his contact with a reporter. McCabe acknowledged that “some of my answers were not fully accurate or may have been misunderstood” but said he corrected them, and “I did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators.”

Trump celebrated McCabe’s firing on Twitter. 

In his op-ed, McCabe compared his “extended humiliation” to that of his predecessor, fired FBI director James Comey.

I was sad, but not surprised, to see that such unhinged public attacks on me would continue into my life after my service to the FBI. President Trump’s cruelty reminded me of the days immediately following the firing of James B. Comey, as the White House desperately tried to push the falsehood that people in the FBI were celebrating the loss of our director. The president’s comments about me were equally hurtful and false, which shows that he has no idea how FBI people feel about their leaders.

On Wednesday, ABC News reported that McCabe had overseen a federal investigation into whether Sessions lied to Congress about his contact with Russian officials. McCabe also reportedly kept memos about the president’s interactions with Comey and the FBI, which he passed on to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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