Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The pressure has gotten so bad that Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, sources say.
Apparently, the White House, at the urging of White House Counsel Don McGahn, has backed off, feeling that getting rid of McCabe is not worth losing the FBI Director. The White House is still wearied from the firestorm that erupted after the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
McCabe has faced criticism from Republicans, as well as the President himself, for actions taken by the Bureau in the Hillary Clinton investigation as well as the Trump/Russia investigation. The criticism intensified late last year after it was revealed that his wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a PAC led by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe during a state Senate campaign a couple of years ago. McAuliffe is a close ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s.
McCabe plans on retiring from the Bureau early this year, when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits, sources say.