Donald Trump was in another fine mood Friday after finding out the Justice Department has restored former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s retirement benefits, The Hill [1] reports.
“Isn’t it terrible that all of Andrew McCabe’s benefits, pensions, salary, etc., were just fully reinstated by the Justice Department?” Trump said in a fiery statement. “This is yet another mockery to our Country. Among other things, McCabe’s wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Hillary Clinton and the Democrats while Crooked Hillary was under investigation, which was quickly dropped, of course.”
“What a bad chapter this has been for the once storied FBI — I hate to see it happening, so many GREAT people work there.”
As for that part about McCabe’s wife? It’s just another typical Trump lie. It’s not a huge lie, but a lie is still a lie no matter how Trump paints it. Why do I know Trump is full of b.s. here? Because of this 207 report from FactCheck.org, [2] which says:
“Twice in two days, President Donald Trump falsely tweeted that [then] acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s wife received $700,000 in campaign donations.”
“The nearly $675,000 — not $700,000 — donated to Dr. Jill McCabe, who unsuccessfully ran for a Virginia state Senate seat in 2015, came from the Virginia Democratic Party and Common Good, VA,” FactCheck.Org notes. “The latter is the Political Action Committee of Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime friend and supporter of Hillary and Bill Clinton.”
So Trump is a bit wide of the mark here, obviously.
McCabe was fired by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions just one day before he was scheduled to retire, The Hill reports. There had been allegations that he lied about leaking Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email server while she was Secretary of State. But the fact is, prosecutors never charged McCabe with making false statements to police.
Now a settlement has been reached and McCabe will receive his full retirement benefits. He will also receive his missed pensions, which totals roughly $200,000. The government will also pay attorney’s fees from the case, which total $500,000.
In the settlement, the Justice Department didn’t admit any wrongdoing.
McCabe must feel a sense of relief now, and it’s not surprising that the only person spreading wrong information is the usual one — Trump. The former FBI acting director also made a rather salient point:
“Politics should never play a role in the fair administration of justice and Civil Service personnel decisions,” he said Thursday. “I hope that this result encourages the men and women of the FBI to continue to protect the American people by standing up for the truth and doing their jobs without fear of political retaliation.”
I wonder if Trump remembers that the NRA backed [3] him and a number of Republican Senate candidates to the tune of $50 million during the 2016 Presidential election? The NRA also threw plenty of money at Trump and other prominent Republicans in 2020, according to The Trace. [3] The site noted that as of Nov. 3, the NRA had donated $4.2 million in support of Trump and $12.2 million to oppose Joe Biden.
We all know how that went. Fortunately.