FBI Director Christopher Wray has tapped Associate Deputy Director David Bowdich to replace Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month.
Bowdich, who began his FBI career in 1995, oversees the management of all FBI personnel, budget, administration, and infrastructure, “as well as the inspection and insider threat programs,” the FBI said.
Paul Abbate — the executive assistant director for the bureau’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch — will take over Bowdich’s role. Abbate, who joined the FBI in 1996, most recently worked as assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Wray also named David Resch as executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch; Andrew Vale as executive assistant director of the Human Resources Branch; and Nancy McNamara as assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office.
Sessions fired McCabe on March 16, less than 48 hours before he planned to formally retire and collect a full pension.
McCabe has vowed to bring his firing to court, claiming he and his family “have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country.”
Sessions said the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General provided its report on “allegations of misconduct” by McCabe to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility “after an extensive and fair investigation,” and thus fired him.
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.
President Trump directed much of his ire toward McCabe for his role in the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
