Washington, March 24, 2018 (AFP)
Veteran FBI agent Andrew McCabe, who was fired just before his retirement, condemned on Friday the "extended humiliation" and "unhinged public attacks" he endured from President Donald Trump and his administration.
McCabe, writing in The Washington Post, said he found out about his sacking earlier this month third-hand from a friend who called to tell him about a news report, only later receiving an email from the Justice Department.
"After two decades of public service, I found out that I had been fired in the most disembodied, impersonal way," he said.
According to the Justice Department, McCabe, who was the FBI's deputy under former director James Comey, was fired because he made unauthorized disclosures to the media, and had not been fully honest "on multiple occasions" with the department's inspector general.
He denied those allegations, saying that he "did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators," and that his contact with a reporter was "fully within my power to authorize as deputy director."
Trump has repeatedly accused McCabe and Comey of having protected presidential candidate Hillary Clinton from prosecution over her misuse of a private email server while she was secretary of state, and over the actions of the private Clinton Foundation set up by her husband, former president Bill Clinton.
Trump was also publicly upset about McCabe's defense of Comey -- whom the president fired in May 2017 in frustration at the ongoing FBI probe into alleged collusion between his election campaign and Russia.
McCabe is potentially a key witness in that probe.

Sumber : AFP