Disgraced former deputy and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe described an atmosphere of “terror” and “panic” within the bureau as agents await the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel. McCabe, who approved a bogus surveillance warrant targeting Trump campaign officials based on Clinton campaign-funded research, now serves as a legal affairs and national security analyst for CNN. For weeks, he has warned that Patel’s confirmation would bring “chaos” to the bureau and lead to mass resignations among agents—news that has been welcomed by conservatives and Trump supporters.
During a recent appearance on the network, McCabe was asked about the Trump Department of Justice’s decision to fire dozens of senior FBI officials. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove also requested that acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll provide a list of agents involved in the partisan January 6 investigations for a formal review. The list, which included nearly a third of the FBI’s 37,000 employees, could result in thousands more agents being fired.
“This is totally unprecedented. FBI rank and file agents and analysts who make up the vast majority of the field offices who do the work of investigating these cases, of executing search warrants, of executing arrest warrants, doing surveillance, electronic surveillance, whatever it might be, those people are never touched by the political winds that blow through every four years, nor should they be,” McCabe said of the agency that hunted Trump supporters over non-violent trespassing offenses for four years.
“As you said, they don’t pick their work, they’re assigned to the work that they do. The work they do is lawful, it’s within FBI policies, and not doing the work is not really an option for them,” he added. McCabe went on to defend the bureau as a nonpartisan law enforcement agency, despite the fact that similar manhunts were never launched for Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, and pro-Palestine protesters have not faced even a fine for comparable actions.
“And so to be targeted in this way for termination potentially or retribution simply for doing their jobs on a major national security case is incomprehensible to them or anybody that knows the organization,” the former deputy director added. He was fired from the bureau after President Trump had earlier fired James Comey for gross incompetence and for also being involved in the bogus investigation of the then-GOP presidential nominee.
Never forget that Andrew McCabe and his then-boss, James Comey, used the FBI as a modern-day version of the SS to go after and destroy Donald Trump for the ‘crime’ of not being a DC elitist insider. pic.twitter.com/IQSWbWYzDT
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) February 8, 2025
McCabe stated that the agency is in “utter disarray” due to expected firings and the impending confirmation of Patel, referencing multiple conversations with FBI employees over the past several days. “You know, if you’re anywhere in the middle of that career, not close to retirement, if you get fired, you’re done. That’s the end of your reputation, your ability to get a new job. You lose your pay, you lose your chance at a pension, you lose your health insurance. This is a moment of terror for these people,” the Russian collusion hoax participant continued.
“It is absolutely disgraceful that they are being put through this in the middle of some political gamesmanship or act of retribution. They don’t deserve to be treated this way,” he added before claiming that Trump’s actions are “unlawful” and without a hint of irony given his role in trying to destroy a Republican presidential nominee for the ‘crime’ of simply being ‘out of favor’ with Washington’s entrenched elite.
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