Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe — who was fired earlier this month two days before his planned retirement — formally launched a legal defense fund on Thursday.
According to the GoFundMe website, his legal team is seeking $150,000 because “at a minimum, there are a number of congressional inquiries that he will be required to respond to, as well as the broader Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigation that is ongoing, and any potential lawsuits he might consider.”
His legal team, which is led by former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich, is allegedly still working to figure out what his pension and benefits will be following his firing.
McCabe was fired on March 16, two days before he planned to retire on his 50th birthday so he could collect a full pension.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe after the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General provided a report on “allegations of misconduct” by McCabe to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility “after an extensive and fair investigation.”
McCabe has since called his firing unjust, saying that he was simply a punching bag for President Trump, who long criticized him for being politically biased.
“Andrew McCabe’s FBI career was long, distinguished, and unblemished. He embraced the most daunting, difficult, and important challenges that the FBI and the country could assign to him over the past 21 years. He served the United States with courage and distinction in the days following the President’s summary dismissal of former Director James Comey, in one of the most tumultuous periods in the Bureau’s history,” reads the GoFundMe page. “His reward for that has been a termination that was completely unjustified, amidst repeated ad hominem attacks by the President of the United States.”
Any extra money not used for his legal proceedings will go to charity, McCabe’s lawyers said.
As of approximately 3 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, the fund had raised more than $5,000.
McCabe, who was appointed by former FBI Director James Comey in January 2016, announced his intent earlier this year to go on “terminal leave” until he could retire and be eligible for full pension in mid-March. By retiring on March 18, he would have been able to get full retirement benefits.
