“The department follows a prescribed process by which an employee may be terminated,” said the spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores. “That process includes recommendations from career employees, and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process. We have no personnel announcements at this time.”

Mr. McCabe declined to comment. His friends and allies have said that he denies any wrongdoing in his dealings with journalists or the inspector general. He stepped down in January and took a leave of absence under pressure over the looming inspector general’s report.

Mr. McCabe is a career agent, not a political appointee, so Mr. Trump has no direct say in his fate. The decision nonetheless comes at a moment of turnover in Mr. Trump’s national security team. On Tuesday, the president fired the secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, and named the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, to replace him. He tapped a veteran clandestine officer, Gina Haspel, to lead the C.I.A.

Firing Mr. McCabe, even on the recommendation of the disciplinary office, would be controversial. Among Mr. McCabe’s allies, the decision would raise the specter that Mr. Sessions was influenced by Mr. Trump’s frequent derisive comments. No deputy director in the history of the F.B.I. has been fired.

But Mr. Sessions would be able to point to a critical inspector general’s report and say he followed Justice Department protocol. The details of why the inspector general viewed Mr. McCabe as not forthcoming are not clear. Though F.B.I. disciplinary records show that drunken driving, domestic violence and assaults have been punished by suspension, when agents are found to have shown a lack of candor under oath, they are commonly fired.

The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, announced last year that he would investigate several contentious decisions made at the F.B.I. and Justice Department during the 2016 presidential campaign. In November, Mr. Horowitz indicated that he planned to issue a single report this spring encompassing his entire review, on matters including the F.B.I.’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

There are no indications that Mr. Horowitz is prepared to release a broad report this week. It is not clear why he opted to handle Mr. McCabe separately and refer him for discipline before the release of the full report. A spokesman for Mr. Horowitz has declined to comment.