Caricature by DonkeyHotey flic.kr/p/Ct4G4K https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Yesterday, the Romeo of counterintelligence, Peter Strzok filed a federal lawsuit claiming that he had been fired improperly due to political pressure and demanding back pay and reinstatement. Today, former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe followed suit, so to speak:

McCabe alleges in the lawsuit filed Thursday that Trump administration officials “responded to Plaintiff’s two decades of unblemished and non-partisan public service with a politically motivated and retaliatory demotion in January 2018 and public firing in March 2018 — on the very night of Plaintiff’s long-planned retirement from the FBI.” He claims that the actions have harmed his “reputation, professional standing, and dramatically reduced his retirement benefits.” In the 48-page complaint, McCabe alleges that Trump was at the heart of his firing, saying the president “purposefully and intentionally caused the unlawful actions of Defendants … and other Executive Branch subordinates that led to Plaintiff’s demotion and purported termination.” “It was Trump’s unconstitutional plan and scheme to discredit and remove DOJ and FBI employees who were deemed to be his partisan opponents because they were not politically loyal to him. Plaintiff’s termination was a critical element of Trump’s plan and scheme,” it reads. McCabe is asking a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to find that “his demotion was unlawful and his purported termination was either a legal nullity,” or to award him with the retirement benefits he had planned on receiving as a former deputy director of the FBI.

I think McCabe’s case is much more of a longshot than Strzok’s. McCabe was disciplined for lying to DOJ IG investigators as well as for violations of the Hatch Act.

Still, there is the amazing curiosity of these two Nimrods filing suits so close together:

It’s almost as if McCabe and Strzok were notified of the same news at the same time and are desperately trying to spin their way out of it, knowing they’ll have a compliant media and weeks before the IG report is released to lie to the public about their corruption. — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 8, 2019

The timing of these bizarre lawsuits from McCabe and Strzok makes me wonder if they’re trying to get ahead of indictments stemming from the DOJ inspector general’s investigation into FBI corruption and attempting to pose as victims of retaliation. https://t.co/UBz0KjmapG — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 8, 2019

If you knew you were about to be indicted and that your case would be tried before a jury in the Eastern District of Virginia or in DC, places where the Russia hoax had a lot of believers, now would be a great time to set the narrative for the jury pool that you were a loyal and spotless civil servant, and Donald Trump, that stooge of Putin, decided to take vengeance on you because you were just, well, just too darn patriotic and public spirited.

I don’t know if that’s the case, but if you have a better idea, let me know.

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