Trump hails FBI official’s firing

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has hailed the firing of a senior FBI agent as a "great day for democracy," a move his attorney said he hoped would bring an end to a probe into alleged collusion between the president’s campaign and Russia.

But critics slammed the axing as a "dangerous" ploy to discredit the top law enforcement agency as well as the work of Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian influence in the 2016 election.

McCabe, who was the FBI’s deputy under former director James Comey, sacked by Trump last year, is potentially a key witness in that probe.

Trump’s personal attorney, John Dowd, told the Daily Beast on Saturday that he hoped Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would follow the lead of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and "bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt Dossier."

McCabe, who has endured a year of withering attacks from the president, was fired by the Justice Department late Friday, just two days before he was to retire after 21 years with the FBI.

The firing threw new fuel on the fire raging over the investigation, with critics saying Trump might be planning to engineer Mueller’s dismissal, potentially sparking a constitutional crisis.

Mueller is also examining whether Trump might have obstructed justice, including through his firing last May of Comey.

"Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy," Trump tweeted soon after the firing.

"Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!" Trump wrote.

McCabe pushed back hard, denying any impropriety and saying he was the victim of a Trump administration "war" against the FBI and the special counsel.

The move could add to discontent inside the FBI, where Comey and McCabe are widely respected.

The Justice Department said an internal investigation had found that McCabe made unauthorised disclosures to the media, and had not been fully honest "on multiple occasions" with the department’s inspector general.

"The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and accountability," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

Lack of candor under oath is a firing offense at the FBI, but the politically charged context of the move raised serious questions among McCabe’s backers.