This story was updated at 12:27 p.m.
President Trump’s personal lawyer suggested the commander-in-chief now hopes special counsel Robert Mueller will get fired after former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was terminated less than 48 hours before he could formally retire with a full pension.
After Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he was firing McCabe, John Dowd, told the Daily Beast that he hopes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller’s Russia inquiry, “will follow” the example set by Sessions.
“I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier,” Dowd said in a text to the Daily Beast.
Dowd originally indicated to the Daily Beast that we was speaking on behalf of Trump, but later put out a clarification, saying he was speaking on behalf of himself and not the president.
Dowd had been responding to a request for comment on McCabe’s ouster, which was announced late Friday evening. Dowd also sent the Daily Beast the text of Trump’s tweet celebrating McCabe, calling it a “great day for democracy,” as well as a quote from the Tennessee Williams play, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
McCabe has rejected reports from the FBI’s Office of Personal Responsibility and Office of Inspector General, cited by Sessions, which concluded he made unauthorized leaks and made disingenuous statements under oath.
McCabe was targeted by Trump and other key Republicans in late 2017 for potentially having a political bias during the FBI’s probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server after it was revealed McCabe’s wife received a campaign contribution from a Clinton ally in her failed bid for a Virginia state Senate seat as a Democrat. However, FBI documents compiled as part of an internal review found McCabe had no conflict of interest throughout the investigation.
Separately, the Daily Beast reported that McCabe has retained a lawyer to represent him in matter related to his firing: Michael Bromwich of the Bromwich Group, who is a former DOJ inspector general.
In a statement late Friday, McCabe said that there has been an effort to “slander” him and accused the push to remove him as being part of the Trump administration’s “ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation,” which is looking at whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
Trump has long called the Mueller probe a “witch hunt” and was reportedly come close to demanding his termination in the past.
McCabe predicted earlier this month, in a Politico interview published late Friday, that he would be a “significant witness” in Mueller’s investigation, which is looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and reportedly also potential obstruction of justice.
Just this week, it was revealed the Mueller’s team is yet again expanding its investigation to include a look at whether foreign money played a role in financing Trump’s political activities by subpoenaing the Trump Organization.
