President Trump took a new angle Wednesday in his public dressing-down of his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions. He tweeted a criticism of Sessions for failing to fire the acting director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, who is filling in since Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey:
This is not the first time Trump has mentioned McCabe in connection to his beef with Sessions, but it is the first time he has explicitly said McCabe should go. On Tuesday, he raised the issue of McCabe's ties to the Clintons, but stopped there:
As for those ties, at issue are two donations to a Virginia state Senate campaign of McCabe's wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, in 2015. She received $200,000 from the Virginia Democratic Party and $450,000 from a PAC run by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who was co-chair of Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and chair of Hillary Clinton's run in 2008.
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Andrew McCabe was then assistant director at the FBI's field office in Washington. During his wife's run, the FBI said in a statement reported by Politifact, he "implemented a system of recusal from all FBI investigative matters involving Virginia politics, a process followed for the remainder of her campaign. During the campaign, he played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind."
Politifact reports there is "no evidence" the Clintons were involved in the campaign donations. Jill McCabe did not win her race, and Andrew McCabe did not have oversight of the Clinton emails investigation until after her loss.
