McCabe Speaks About Being Vindicated After Firing Reversed, Pension Restored

COOPER: Andrew, first of all, what does this mean for you and your family?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Oh my gosh, Anderson, I can’t tell you what, what this has been like going through it what this whole vindictive campaign has put my wife through, my children, my parents, so to have a settlement of this lawsuit, and one that so clearly indicates, this should never have happened. It is both an incredible relief. It’s, it’s satisfying, but it’s also, you know, it’s also kind of sad. I mean, like this should never have happened, my family should never have had to go through this.

COOPER: Well, it’s remarkable. I hadn’t realized that you had had I think was on a Friday night, you were having, you’d had a meal with your family, essentially retirement celebration with your family, because you were trying the next day. And the — they’ve they fired you right before that consciously. You know, vindictively. What was it like to have the former president who doesn’t know you, I mean, he has no idea of anything about you just pick you out of, you know, obscurity, essentially, in terms of his knowledge of you and just focus on you and attack you.

MCCABE: It was so, it was so bizarre Anderson. You know, in December 23rd of 2017, he tweeted out to the world that he was racing me to my retirement. I mean, to know that you essentially have a target on your back from the most powerful person in the world, the person that you extensively work for is a member of the executive branch. I mean, it was just a, it was like, upside down world like you can’t even — I can’t even describe how terrifying and annoying and humiliating that is. But you know, that’s what he subjected people through for four years.

COOPER: It’s also after a life of public service. I mean, there’s, I’m sure a lot of people in your position could have long ago, gone to a law firm or gone to do other work that would have been far more, you know, financially rewarding. You were serving the public. And I mean, does your settlement with the Justice Department admit any kind of political influence on their part in your firing? Because it was obviously Jeff Sessions under pressure, putting DOJ under pressure that was sort of the ripple effects of that.

MCCABE: Absolutely. I mean, this was very clearly an active of political of, you know, vindication against a perceived political enemy, which wasn’t even true, but nevertheless, that’s what they did. The President demanded this and Jeff Sessions complied and the rest of the Department of Justice complied as well. The inspector general delivered a truncated, rushed, unfair report that left out material evidence, the FBI knowing their process wouldn’t conclude before I retired, rushed it, sped up the clock to get done what the attorney general or the president were demanding.

I mean, it’s that’s why this settlement. I mean, it’s a great thing for my family. But I think it’s a message to government employees, civil servants everywhere. This is the current Department of Justice, standing up for fairness and standing up for the rule of law. In the settlement agreement itself, they agree that members of the executive branch should not interfere in internal political — internal personnel matters, because it creates the appearance of political influence. Well, that’s exactly what happened here.