Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley is calling on Andrew McCabe to be replaced as the FBI’s deputy director.
But Grassley, a Republican, said that President Trump should steer clear of the matter. Instead, FBI Director Christopher Wray should remove McCabe, who has come under heavy fire from Republicans over his roles in the Clinton email and Russia collusion investigations.
“Trump ought to stay out of it. I think it’s a Christopher Wray job,” Grassley told reporters on Monday, according to Bloomberg News.
“He oughta be replaced,” Grassley said of McCabe. “And I’ve said that before and I’ve said it to people who can do it.”
The bureau’s second highest-ranking official, McCabe will be interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. He will be asked about his role in the Russia investigation and his knowledge about the infamous Trump dossier, the 35-page document written by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Clinton campaign and DNC.
The FBI and Justice Department have reluctantly agreed to make McCabe available to the committee, which is one of three Congressional panels looking into Russian interference in the presidential campaign.
Grassley’s committee is also investigating the issue.
Grassley has pressed the FBI over McCabe’s involvement in the Clinton email investigation. McCabe recused himself from that investigation in Oct. 2016 after it was reported that his wife received hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions for a Virginia state senate bid from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a staunch ally of the Clintons.
Grassley and his Republican colleagues are also interested in McCabe’s knowledge about FBI agent Peter Strzok’s handling of the Russia investigation. Strzok was kicked off of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team after it was discovered that he sent anti-Trump and pro-Clinton text messages last year while working on both of the investigations.
In one cryptic text message, dated Aug. 15, 2016, Strzok appeared to reference a discussion that had taken place in McCabe’s office.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” Strzok wrote to Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who was also his mistress.