Jeff Sessions reportedly said the FBI was better when it 'only hired Irishmen'

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe in his new book makes some stunning claims about the man who fired him, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

According to a Washington Post book review, McCabe reportedly says Sessions once lamented that the FBI was better when "you all only hired Irishmen" because "they were drunks but they could be trusted," unlike "all those new people with nose rings and tattoos — who knows what they're doing?"

A source close to Sessions denied this account, telling The Wall Street Journal, "The idea of him ever saying a disparaging thing about anyone in law enforcement is laughable."

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Sessions also "believed that Islam — inherently — advocated extremism" and frequently asked where a suspect was from, or where his parents were from, as he "ceaselessly sought to draw connections between crime and immigration," the Post writes. Overall, the Post's review concludes, the account "suggests that the Trump administration's reputation for baseness and dysfunction has, if anything, been understated and too narrowly attributed to the president."

McCabe, who recently confirmed the Justice Department held discussions about whether the president's Cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, was fired by Sessions in March 2018, right before he was planning to retire. McCabe at the time said this was part of the administration's "ongoing war" with the FBI and with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, while Sessions said he fired McCabe following an "unauthorized disclosure to the news media."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.