Report: Sessions has been pressuring FBI director to fire his deputy

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 23 January 2018

With President Trump's encouragement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray has threatened to resign if McCabe is forced out, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Axios.

Sessions told White House Counsel Don McGahn that Wray has been distressed by the requests, Axios reports, and McGahn in turn said it's not worth losing the director, especially in the wake of Trump firing former FBI Director James Comey last year. Trump nominated Wray last June; he previously served as deputy attorney general under former President George W. Bush. McCabe was acting director of the FBI after Comey was fired, and Trump and other Republicans want him gone because his wife ran for office as a Democrat.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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