But in a statement Friday, McCabe, who has spent two decades at the FBI, said he viewed his firing as a partisan decision that is part of the Trump administration’s “ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation.”
Related: McCabe: Trump wants to destroy me to stop Mueller probe
The firing and Trump’s response early Saturday sparked outrage from Democrats and former members of the intelligence community who have cast the decision to remove McCabe as something akin to a political hit-job.
John Brennan, the former director of the CIA, slammed what he described as Trump’s “venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called for the swift release of the inspector general’s report so that the public could judge the merits of McCabe’s removal.
Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said the absence of the IG’s report makes McCabe’s removal appeared overtly political.
“That it comes after the president urged the DOJ to deprive McCabe of his pension, and after his testimony, gives the action an odious taint,” Schiff tweeted.
In contrast, Republican Mark Meadows, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News host Laura Ingraham Friday, that he supported the decision to remove McCabe.
“No one ever gets fired from the FBI and DOJ without their being real credible evidence so the suggestion that this is a political hit job is just not accurate,” Meadows said.