FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a frequent target of President Donald Trump‘s ire, is stepping down.
McCabe, 49, was made acting director of the FBI following Trump’s controversial decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey. He stayed in that position until Christopher Wray was approved in August.
NBC reports that the deputy FBI director will retire in mid-March.
BREAKING: Andrew McCabe, FBI Deputy Director & a frequent Trump target, stepping down.
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 29, 2018
NBC News: Multiple U.S. officials say that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is stepping down from his post today and taking “terminal leave” meaning that he will stay on until his retirement in March (that was always his plan) so he can receive full retirement benefits.
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) January 29, 2018
The decision to leave the FBI comes after he has been a frequent target of Trump, with tensions brewing between the president and in the nation’s highest law enforcement agency.
Earlier this month, Axios reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions told newly-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray, who replaced Comey, to get a “fresh start” by firing many high-ranking members of the agency, including McCabe.
The news outlet reported last week that Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed from his position.
“Trump started his presidency by pressuring one FBI Director (before canning him), and then began pressuring another (this time wanting his deputy canned). This much meddling with the FBI for this long is not normal,” the website reported at the time.
McCabe leaving the FBI is surely going to please Trump. In July he openly asked on Twitter why Sessions—who has also been the subject of Trump’s anger on Twitter—hadn’t fired McCabe.
In December, Trump also blasted the deputy FBI director’s retirement plans, questioning how his wife was given campaign donations from a PAC of a political ally of Hillary Clinton.
The president also reportedly asked McCabe who he voted for during the 2016 election during a meeting between the two shortly after Comey’s firing.
McCabe was also responsible for setting up an interview between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the FBI during the first days of Trump’s presidency.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian contacts, and is now reportedly working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s sprawling investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
