FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is stepping down, NBC News reported Monday.
According to NBC, McCabe will officially remain at the FBI until mid-March, which is when he can retire with full benefits.
The news follows reports last week that President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions pressured FBI Director Chris Wray to clean house and fire McCabe. Wray — whom Trump appointed in June to replace former Director James Comey after he fired him — threatened to resign if McCabe were fired.
Wray reportedly told Sessions he was frustrated by the pressure from the Department of Justice and the Trump administration, prompting Sessions to speak with White House lawyer Donald McGahn, who advised him to back off, according to The Washington Post.
The New York Times reported late last year that McCabe was planning to retire in early 2018.
McCabe’s decision to step down comes as Trump has publicly criticized the deputy director for months, falsely claiming in tweets that Hillary Clinton gave McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, “big dollars” for a Virginia state senate seat race in 2015.
