Trump gloats about Andrew McCabe's firing, calls it 'a great day for Democracy'
- President Donald Trump said it was "a great day" on Friday, not long after FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was fired, just hours away from his retirement.
- Trump also railed against former FBI director James Comey, whom he called "sanctimonious."
- After his termination was announced, McCabe said he was being "singled out" for being a witness to Comey's May 2017 ouster from the bureau.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the firing of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe on Twitter Friday night, calling it "a great day for Democracy."
"Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy," Trump said in a tweet.
"Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy," Trump said, referring to the former FBI director whom he fired in May 2017. "He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI," Trump claimed.
McCabe served the bureau for 21 years.
He released a statement immediately after his firing: "Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey."
McCabe was one of three top FBI officials Comey told about his conversations with Trump, many of which are now the subject of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump sought to obstruct justice when he fired Comey.
McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year amid an internal investigation by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into his approval of unauthorized disclosures to the media in October 2016 related to the bureau's inquiry of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
The Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, reportedly concluded in a report that McCabe was not forthcoming during the OIG review. The FBI Office of Personal Responsibility (OPR) subsequently recommended that Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire McCabe, according to The New York Times.
Sessions said in a statement Friday that "both the OIG and FBI OPR reports concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions."
Sonam Sheth contributed reporting.