The White House signaled on Thursday that it takes a dim view of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's eleventh-hour effort to avoid being fired just days before his retirement begins and he qualifies for a lucrative government pension.

At the same time, the Trump administration made it clear that the president isn't eager to take responsibility for firing him.

'That's a determination that we would leave up to Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Thursday.

'But we do think that it is well-documented that he has had some very troubling behavior. And by most accounts [he's] a bad actor and should have some cause for concern.'

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Former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe could be fired from the agency just days before his retirement – and the White House is signaling that he should be

The president is punting the ball to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, seemingly dangling before him a chance to get back in the White House's good graces by sticking it to McCabe

Terminating McCabe 'would be a decision that the Department of Justice would have to make,' Sanders added, punting the ball down Constitution Avenue.

McCabe plans to retire on Sunday with full benefits. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Office of Professional Responsibility has recommended firing him for misleading Justice Department investigators about his supervision of probes into Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election season.

He stepped down from his active DOJ role in January, but continued to draw a salary in advance of his retirement date following a 22-year federal law enforcement career.

McCabe was summoned to the Justice Department on Thursday to plead his case in an effort to preserve his pension.

Sessions didn't meet with him personally – he's in Nashville, Tennessee speaking to a convention of police chiefs– but McCabe sat down with senior attorneys in the department.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called McCabe a 'bad actor' on Thursday, referring to his decision to allow FBI officials to speak to reporters about a Clinton Foundation investigation in 2016

President Donald Trump has long voiced complaints about McCabe, including his objection to political campaign money McCabe's wife accepted from a fundraising committee with Clinton ties

Trump has complained repeatedly about Sessions, carping that his unexpected recusal from investigations into claims of Trump campaign collusion with Russians sparked an independent counsel probe that he sees as needless and intrusive.

Firing McCabe could put Sessions back in the president's good graces, but the clock is ticking.

The DOJ's Office of Inspector General, which investigated the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton classified email affair for more than a year, concluded that McCabe authorized FBI officials to speak with a journalist for an October 2016 story in The Wall Street Journal.

The IG report, which led to the disciplinary recommendation against McCabe, has not yet been publicly released.

McCabe played key supervisory roles at the FBI during major events including the Boston Marathon bombing.

Yet Trump has frequently singled out McCabe in arguing that FBI leadership is biased against his administration.

He attacked McCabe during his White House campaign trail, following the revelation that his wife had accepted campaign contributions from the political action committee of then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton ally, during a failed state Senate run.

'Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!' Trump tweeted last July.

The FBI has said McCabe received ethics approval and was not overseeing the Clinton investigation at the time.

The Justice Department sidestepped questions about McCabe on Thursday, telling the Associated Press only that it 'follows a prescribed process by which an employee may be terminated.'

'That process includes recommendations from career employees and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process,' an agency spokeswoman said.