Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio's daily program "The Dean Obeidallah Show" and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @DeanObeidallah. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) If the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe on Friday night felt like something you'd see in a third-world dictatorship, you aren't alone.

It reminded many of authoritarian leaders in other nations who purge those from the government who have not shown absolute loyalty or who have dared to publicly contradict them.

In a vacuum, Attorney General Jeff Sessions' firing of McCabe approximately 26 hours before he would be eligible for early retirement benefits could turn out to be above reproach. The Justice Department Inspector General's Michael Horowitz, nominated to this position in 2011 by then President Barack Obama, had reportedly concluded that McCabe had "misled investigators about his role in directing other officials at the FBI" to speak to the media in connection with an ongoing investigation. However, the Inspector General's report has not yet been publicly released, and McCabe vehemently denies the charges.

And, more importantly, we don't live in a vacuum. We live in the real world where context matters. And what we saw was Donald Trump lead a very public campaign to smear, undermine and ultimately replace McCabe, who was acting as FBI director after Trump fired James Comey, with current FBI director Christopher Wray.

Was Trump out to get McCabe because McCabe dared to publicly contradict Trump when he testified before Congress in May?

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