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Attorney General Jeff Sessions Fires Andrew McCabe
From the Washington Post:
Published in PoliticsAttorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire.
Sessions announced the decision in a statement just before 10 p.m., noting that both the Justice Department Inspector General and the FBI office that handles discipline had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
I agree with @harrisventures in #151 that the pension is not an issue. I think it is an appeal to emotions of folks who may think that he is being denied something. In fact it is a choice. He could have retired on the day he first knew he was in trouble – just for less than what he had planned for…
I have colleagues within the company that have continued working past 55 with an intention to go to 65 or 67. Also, I have – now former – colleagues, who upon hitting 55 quit/retired and took other jobs where they got a much larger pay in lieu of the benefits, as they already had a pension and a health insurance. At the end it is what one wants to do, and how one planned for the later years of his working days. I just wanted to point out that at some jobs pensions are sweet and at some are non-existent. In the company I work for, I am grandfathered into a pension plan whereas all new employees since 2004 had to accept 401k benefit with 7% matching by the company. And all these contracts are not a sure thing either. In 2011 my company was acquired by another entity and my contractual formula got changed. My choice was to either quit at the end of 2010 and to get my benefits as originally contracted for – some of my colleagues did just that, or I could accept a freeze of years of service in the formula in exchange for a 401k option with up to 4% matching. Well! I am still working at the same place. Again, the guy is not going to suffer. He will have to rearrange his plans… unless he ends up in a pen…
The whole thing is really about what he did; the pension angle is a red herring. He screwed up and got caught…
I spotted the same thing. It appears either Comey or McCabe lied. Whoever did should be subject to prosecution.
Should be.
But won’t be.
I begin with this statement by the Attorney General:
Leaking and
lying“lacked candor under oath on multiple occasions.” Whatever laws this may or may not have violated, this is apparently a violation of the FBI’s internal policies.If there is evidence to substantiate those charges, as I understand it, and I am not a lawyer or HR expert, that would seem sufficient grounds to fire him.
Now McCabe’s statement. First, it is clearly the product of a powerful and disciplined mind with the ability to make fine moral distinctions.
Only such a man would be able to be certain that he had no conflict of interest, and to determine for himself that the inevitable although (given the magnificent character his statement proves) obviously false appearance of conflict of interest over the trivial $700,000 the Clintons gave his wife’s election campaign (and, since @garyrobbins contributed to the Clinton campaign war chest, he also – de facto – made a modest contribution to a McCabe’s wife’s campaign.)
True, the server investigation was virtually certain to spill over to the Clinton campaign. But this was obviously known by the Director, who could not possibly have considered it not to be significant. After all, the Director knew that any thorough investigation of the server would involve the President, so that was clearly going nowhere. Where could any hypothetical conflict lie? The campaign contribution could have no possible effect on the investigation, since the outcome was predetermined by the White House and the Attorney General.
As to the supposed oaths and the supposed lies, that was overridden by the need to protect the President and Hillary, the only person standing between Trump and the White House.
This was a bipartisan understanding. For True Conservatives, the Dems couldn’t possibly do that much damage in eight, or sixteen years, maybe more. The True Conservatives are the Saving Remnant, so they must be correct.
[continued]
It is immediately obvious to any sophisticated and mature mind that even though under the Democrats, the flow of conservatives to the federal bench will stop and the progressives will again be able to take their rightful seats on the bench, and the horrific purge that might eliminate progressives from upper levels of government will stop, it’s irrelevant. After all, the schools are educating young Americans to value Liberty, so the disaster of another eight or sixteen years of Democrat rule will only feed the thirst of the voters for True Conservatism!
The nobility of McCabe’s position has only been proven further since the catastrophe of November ’16. It has become increasingly dangerous to the conservative movement to have Trump in the White House one second longer. Since this is the highest possible national priority, the end of getting rid of Trump clearly justifies any means.
It would have been much, much better to keep the man out of the White House in the first place. McCabe and his coconspirators band of brothers tried valiantly to to that. Sadly, they failed and the evil victors are martyring this noble man.
We can clearly see that conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying under oath, any of those things, even worse crimes – should they have been committed – are all made into virtues by the critical importance of the cause. After the November Nakba, the so-called conspirators tried to spare the professionals who should run the country from putting the country through the trauma of impeachment, which is lengthy and, even worse, by no means certain.
I just saw this from Paul Mirengoff at Powerlline. it seems relevant.
Mirengoff then notes:
McCabe’s statement must be read in the light of this information.
McCabe’s statement reads like a written response to an adverse action proposal to fire him. If that’s what it actually is, then there should be a notice of proposed removal in his possession that gives chapter and verse of the justification for his firing. McCabe is free to release this notice if he so chooses. The date of the proposal notice would tell us when the tentative decision to fire him was formalized. If it was dated fewer than 30 days (the usual required notice period) before his actual removal, this would indicate that the individual issuing the proposal notice had reason to believe that McCabe had committed a crime for which a sentence of imprisonment may be imposed.
I don’t believe he met the minimum age requirement to retire at that time.
Per the guideline link in your comment earlier (#56), he should be eligible for early retirement at the age of 56, and, yet, he was going to retire at 50 with 21 years of service. He must be working from a different set of rules.
Per Sundance at the Conservative Tree House commenting on a statement from McCabe’s lawyer:
“[…] It would appear toward the end of last month (February), McCabe and his attorney were given the summary outline of the OIG referral submitted to the Office of Professional Responsibility. They had approximately three weeks to file a response.
Then a week ago, they received the finalized a copy of the OPR recommendation delivered to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They had four more days to respond to the Deputy AG.[…]”
I think he was covered by the special law enforcement officer/firefighter pension provision, which allows retirement at age 50 with 20 years service or at any age with 25 years of service. It’s more generous than regular early retirement.
I’d be OK with him collecting it at a Leavenworth address…..
Behavior I would expect from a self proclaimed Democrat.
Jam yesterday and jam tomorrow but never jam today.
4 years of Hillary continuing the destruction of Obama, and the country most of us would recognize would be gone.
Only for the Proles, not the Patricians.
Normally, you must get a firing proposal a minimum of 30 days before a decision to fire can be implemented. You have seven days from the proposal date to reply. As I noted above, the crime provision can serve to shorten the 30-day notice period, but not the seven-day reply period. The Justice OPR may have its own procedures, but the adverse action procedures described are set by law government-wide, and I’d be surprised if McCabe’s removal wasn’t processed using them. But it’s possible that Justice and the FBI have their own rules, or that McCabe’s appointment didn’t convey full civil service protections. That’s why I’d love to see the paperwork he received.
Edit: The FBI does, in fact, have a separate system for taking adverse actions. Their system still requires a proposal notice, but the time limits may be different from those that apply to other federal employees.
Yes, I understand Bill Kristol is planning to challenge Trump in 2020. That’ll teach him !
Republican Precinct-Committeeperson. Republican Candidate. Attended Republican State Conventions. Not voted for a Democrat for President since I was in college in 1972. Given ten times more money to Republicans than Democrats.
James A. Baker famously said that it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.
Someone will run. Romney, Flake, Sasse, someone will run in the Republican Primary. And the talk is of an Independent Third Party Challenge by Kasich. This Republican will never vote for Trump in the primary or general election. I suspect there are many other Republicans who won’t either.
See Comment 171. Today is McCabe’s 50th Birthday. A couple of Democrats in Congress have offered McCabe a job for a day so that he can retire as a federal employee at the age of 50, with over 20 years of a law enforcement background.
NeverTrumpers are a serious threat to the conservative movement.
They would happily see conservatism defeated rather than succeed under a President they hate. Because conservative success would mean they would be forced to credit President Trump, and they are simply too egotistical to do that.
Kasich is a nightmare. He’s just as bad of an inflationist as Trump and everything else he brings is completely negative. Vote buying RINO central planner.
The Deep State has many allies. Trump has a serious task to try to restore our country that Lyndon Johnson destroyed. I’m not sure he can do it.
The NeverTrumpers are on the side of the Deep State. I’m sure Bill Kristol is. His father would be ashamed.
I hope you can see that for the sick political theatrics that it is, as well as disrespect for the rule of law and a slap in the face of the citizen class.
But it will be a finger in the eye to Trump so all is good
Those you mention would rather see Hillary in office than Trump. I suspect it of all and know it of at least one. I won’t vote for any of them. So, go ahead and destroy the party. Give control to the Democrats. Then, don’t complain about what they do.
Gary Robbins is a Flagstaff family law attorney who ran for Superior Court in 2012. He describes his politics as being a national NeverTrump Republican and an Arizona Democrat.
It calls itself a goose.
As discussed at The Conservative Treehouse,
McCabe’s “under oath” lying (lacking candor in FBI speak) possibly occurred while talking to the invisible outside prosecutor that Sessions spoke about having hired, as the Inspector General has no power to question folks under oath. Or…McCabe lied in his Congressional testimony.
Well that last statement, considering all the rhetoric expounded on this site, does not surprise me one little, tiny bit. An Arizona Democrat professing to be a Republican. Someone please define “troll”. I am a bit old for this new internet lingo.
Different Gary Robbins, probably.