
Republicans tried to scapegoat FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in order to protect Trump. The FBI just smacked down that total nonsense.

Republicans have spent weeks trying to portray FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as biased, in what appears to be an attempt to undermine the credibility of a key figure in the ongoing Russia investigation

This targeting may be part of why he decided to retire in March.

But the FBI tweeted out documented proof that the smear campaign against McCabe is wholly baseless.


The document linked in the tweet addresses the central accusations made by Donald Trump: As McCabe's wife ran for state senate in Virginia with a $700,000 contribution from Hillary Clinton ally Gov. Terry McAuliffe, McCabe was allegedly overseeing the investigation into Clintons emails.

But as the FBI form notes, "The timeline misstates when McCabe was promoted to Associate Deputy Director and makes invalid associations between the events." McCabe was not in charge of the email investigation during his wifes political run, and thus there was no conflict.

But the conflict of interest alleged by Republicans may only be a pretext. In a recent closed-door meeting with the House Intelligence Committee, McCabe said that he could corroborate the claims Trump had demanded loyalty of fired FBI Director James Comey.

In other words, this may not be about yet again targeting Clinton so much as protecting Trump.

And according to the New York Times, many Republicans have enthusiastically done their best to push out McCabe, joining in the baseless allegations that he might have a conflict:

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has called for McCabes ouster, saying he ought to go for reasons of being involved in some of the things that took place in the previous administration. We want to make sure that theres not undue political influence within the FBI  the [Justice] Department and the FBI.

Republicans no longer judge people fit for their job with anything resembling objective facts. They instead use their partisan loyalties to target people, including those in nonpartisan law enforcement agencies.

And if people like McCabe are forced out for posing a threat to Trump, the consequences for the future could be dangerous.