Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to clean house at the FBI, but his efforts appear to have been resisted, Axios revealed Tuesday.
For many months, Sessions has been quietly urging FBI Director Christopher Wray to make “a fresh start” by replacing his top lieutenants, including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, administration sources say.
“The conversations about McCabe and the core team started shortly after Wray was confirmed,” a senior administration source told Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.
Another person Sessions wants to have axed from the team, according to the sources, is the FBI’s top lawyer, James A. Baker, who was “reassigned” in December. House Republicans say Baker communicated with Mother Jones reporter David Corn in the weeks leading up to the November 2016 election. Mother Jones was the first publication to report the existence of the salacious, unverified dossier alleging Trump’s connections with Russia.
Rybicki, who served in the same position under former FBI Director James Comey, had come under scrutiny from Republicans in recent months about his role in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
***
Wray said he has tapped attorney Zachary Harmon to replace Rybicki.
According to multiple reports, McCabe “is expected to retire after he becomes eligible for his pension [in] early [2018],” but no one knows for sure what his actual plans are.
President Trump and other Republicans have identified McCabe as one of the chief troublemakers in the FBI.
Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017
Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
…big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017
.@JudicialWatch uncovered how Andrew McCabe, FBI #2, didn't recuse himself from Clinton email investigation until a month before election — despite his wife's campaign getting $500k+ from Clinton crony. Why is FBI Director Wray still protecting McCabe? https://t.co/SeUV0WtrRp pic.twitter.com/C0ikTm3N5J
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) January 23, 2018
According to Axios, “Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed.”
Sessions told White House Counsel Don McGahn about how upset Wray was about the pressure on him to fire McCabe, and McGahn told Sessions this issue wasn’t worth losing the FBI Director over, according to a source familiar with the situation.
President Trump denied on Tuesday that FBI Director Christopher Wray threatened to resign — “he didn’t even a little bit,” he said — but Axios is standing by their report. “Trump was not involved in any of the conversations with Wray, and we never reported that he was,” wrote Swan.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member