McCabe resigns; Trump is a petty asshole

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has told FBI staff he is stepping down effective Monday -- a move that surprised even those expecting his March retirement, sources tell CNN.

[...]

He was eligible to retire in March, but with his accumulated leave, he was able to step down earlier.

[...]

[A] source familiar with the matter said FBI Director Christopher Wray told McCabe he is bringing in his own team, which he would not be a part of, and that it was McCabe's decision whether to stay at the FBI or leave.

FBI Assistant Deputy Director David Bowdich has been appointed as the bureau's acting deputy director.

[...]

Trump has kept nonstop pressure on McCabe ever since he became acting director in May, using the longtime law enforcement official as a punching bag -- both publicly and privately -- to vent his frustrations about the FBI. In December, Trump tweeted "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!"

And in July 2017, Trump flatly asked why Attorney General Jeff Sessions had not fired McCabe yet.

  CNN

If I'm not mistaken, without knowing laws pertaining to fedreal employees, I think McCabe has a case to sue for being driven out of his job.  Wray saying it was McCabe's choice doesn't make it so if his continued employment was made untenable by the asshole in chief.  Not that I would expect McCabe to sue.  Maybe he can give Mueller's team a hand.

[FBI Director James] Comey’s dismissal on May 9, 2017 was hastily executed and even took many senior White House officials by surprise. As it was unfolding, some of them quietly discussed how Comey would get back to Washington, a senior White House official who was there at the time said.

“I don’t think anybody had thought about how he’d get home,” the official said.

Trump thought Comey should not have been allowed to take the FBI plane he had taken to California, according to people familiar with the matter.

[...]

The president’s longtime bodyguard and aide, Keith Schiller, delivered the news of Comey’s firing in envelope he brought to FBI headquarters while Comey was in California. Trump believed any privileges Comey had received as FBI director should have ceased at that moment.

[...]

The day after [Trump fired] Comey, he became so furious watching television footage of the ousted FBI director boarding a government-funded plane from Los Angeles back to Washington, D.C. that he called the bureau’s acting director, Andrew McCabe, to vent, according to multiple people familiar with the phone call.

Trump demanded to know why Comey was allowed to fly on an FBI plane after he had been fired, these people said. McCabe told the president he hadn’t been asked to authorize Comey’s flight, but if anyone had asked, he would have approved it, three people familiar with the call recounted to NBC News.

The president was silent for a moment and then turned on McCabe, suggesting he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser — an apparent reference to a failed campaign for state office in Virginia that McCabe’s wife made in 2015.

McCabe replied: “OK, sir.” Trump then hung up the phone.

  NBC

Yes, he is a total shithead, why do you ask?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.