Washington (CNN) Jill McCabe broke her silence Monday night on President Donald Trump's attacks against her and her husband because she wanted a "chance to tell her story," according to a source close to her.

The wife of fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe called out the President for his public attacks, centered on her 2015 run for the state Senate in Virginia, in a Washington Post op-ed

For months, people at work would walk by the emergency room pediatrician's office and ask why she hadn't spoken up, but "from the very beginning, she didn't want to do anything to hurt Andrew," the source said.

"She sought a moment to clear her name," added the source, noting that she felt it was important to "defend herself."

"For the past year and a half of this nightmare, I have not been free to speak out about what happened. Now that Andrew has been fired, I am," Jill McCabe wrote in Monday's op-ed.

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