Fired FBI Official's Legal Defense Fund To Close After Raising More Than $500,000

A legal defense fund for fired FBI official Andrew McCabe has more than tripled its financial goals and will soon close up shop, a spokeswoman said Monday.

McCabe's "GoFundMe" page has collected more than $537,000 from nearly 13,000 donors since it was established last week.

The former FBI deputy director was fired in March, only hours before his full law enforcement pension was set to vest on his 50th birthday.

In a statement, McCabe called the outpouring "simply overwhelming."

"It's not lost on me," he said, "that each contribution reflects not just someone's well wishes but also their acknowledgement that something in this situation is not fair or just."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he dismissed McCabe last month after career Justice Department officials found that he had demonstrated a "lack of candor" about his dealings with the Wall Street Journal in 2016.

The Journal was reporting a story about an ongoing investigation into the Clinton Foundation, and it published new details about the status of the probe in the run-up to the presidential election. The episode later came under review from the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who prepared a report that's awaiting public release.

For his part, McCabe said he never intended to mislead anyone and that he worked to clear up inaccuracies and misunderstandings during a chaotic time that included the firing of his boss, James Comey, by President Trump in May 2017.

McCabe's spokeswoman said he intends to use the legal fund to cover the costs of responding to requests from the Justice Department inspector general and likely oversight hearings in Congress.

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