FBI Official Fired Under Trump Gets His Pension Back

Update: Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was fired just 26 hours before he was due to retire in 2018, will be getting his pension after all. The Justice Department has agreed to allow McCabe to officially retire and receive benefits, reports the New York Times. McCabe, who joined the bureau in 1996 and was fired on the eve of his 50th birthday, will receive $200,000 in missed pension payments and his legal fees will be paid. The move settles a lawsuit in which McCabe argued he was fired for political reasons after he was targeted by then-President Donald Trump, NPR reports. Trump celebrated the firing on Twitter, calling it a "great day for democracy." Our original story from March 24, 2018 follows:

"Not in my worst nightmares did I ever dream my FBI career would end this way," Andrew McCabe says. That way being fired immediately before his "long-planned" retirement after 21 years with the FBI then having that firing celebrated on Twitter by the President of the United States of America. McCabe, who served as both deputy director and acting director of the FBI prior to his firing March 16, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about his experience. He says he spent the day of his firing with his family, waiting to see if he would be allowed to retire. He found out he wouldn't when a friend called to tell him CNN was reporting he had been fired. "After two decades of public service, I found out that I had been fired in the most disembodied, impersonal way—third-hand, based on a news account," McCabe writes.

McCabe says he was not deserving of accusations of "lack of candor" that were lobbied at him. He says he "did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators" and "answered questions as completely and accurately as I could." And while there was occasional confusion or misunderstandings, he says he definitely didn't deserve "the very public and extended humiliation of my family and me that the administration, and the president personally, have engaged in over the past year." McCabe accuses President Trump of "unhinged public attacks" and "cruelty." Still, he encourages young people who want to do good to consider joining the FBI: "It is the best job you will ever have. Even if a president decides to attack you and your family. Even if you get fired on a Friday night, one day from your retirement." Read the full piece here. (More Andrew McCabe stories.)