

Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a key member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the Justice Department's inspector general was pursuing McCabe well before the No. 2 FBI official testified before the Intelligence panel in late December.



"I would be very careful not to believe that Andy McCabe's problems began when he spoke to the House Intel Committee; I can tell you for a fact that the [inspector general] was looking in on that fact pattern before he ever set foot in [that] space, so I would be very reluctant to believe that,” Gowdy told The Hill in an interview.



McCabe’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its Russia probe was cited by the panel's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), in a controversial report released in early February alleging that senior FBI and Justice Department officials improperly secured surveillance warrants on a former Trump campaign adviser. ADVERTISEMENT McCabe’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its Russia probe was cited by the panel's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), in a controversial report released in early February alleging that senior FBI and Justice Department officials improperly secured surveillance warrants on a former Trump campaign adviser.

McCabe said after his firing last Friday that he was ousted as part of an effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, of which he is a potential witness. He said the Justice Department's inspector general accelerated a portion of its review concerning him after his appearance before the House Intelligence Committee.



"I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of [former FBI Director] James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey's accounts of his discussions with the President," McCabe said in a "I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of [former FBI Director] James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey's accounts of his discussions with the President," McCabe said in a statement

At least one Democrat would like to see the internal documents used to justify firing McCabe, a more than 20-year veteran of the FBI, just two days before he was set to retire.