(JTA) — The head of the Anti-Defamation League expressed his support for fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, calling him a “patriot.”
“The country owes him our deepest gratitude and the dignity of his earnings after two decades of selfless public service,” CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said Saturday night in a tweet.
U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on Friday, two days before he was set to retire after more than 20 years at the FBI. McCabe had been on a leave of absence since January, when he announced that he would step down, reportedly after repeated taunting and pressure from President Donald Trump.
McCabe reportedly had accumulated enough leave time to be able to step down in January but retire this month. His firing two days before his official retirement date could jeopardize his full pension as a 21-year veteran of the FBI, according to reports.
McCabe over the weekend said his firing was an attempt by the Trump administration to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, in which McCabe is a potential witness.
Sessions said that McCabe, who was among the first at the FBI to scrutinize possible Trump campaign ties to Russia, had shown a lack of candor under oath on multiple occasions, a fireable offense.
On Saturday, Greenblatt reposted a tweet from Dec. 23 in which he said: “When the Jewish community faced an unprecedented wave of bomb threats earlier this year, Andrew McCabe was an ally who worked closely with us in a time of need and labored to solve the case. We are indebted to him for his patriotism, professionalism & public service.”
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