"I think morale's always been good, but there were folks within our agency that were frustrated with the outcome of the Hillary Clinton case and some of those folks were very vocal about those concerns," McCabe testified.
McCabe did add that Comey "enjoyed broad support" within the agency, however.
That the US mainstream media has ignored this comment was the subject of discussion on Fault Lines on Sputnik Radio on Thursday.
“Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe was testifying today and he acknowledged for the first time in public testimony that some agents were angry with the 2016 decision not to prosecute Secretary [of State] Hillary Clinton,” host Garland Nixon noted.
“So here’s my takeaway,” Nixon continued. “My take is that Andrew McCabe was one of the people who was unhappy with the outcome of the Clinton case. Here’s why: he volunteered this out of the blue, just kind of matter-of-factly. They asked him about the morale of the FBI, he could have simply said morale is fine – just said there were some bumps in the road – but he took the opportunity to insert this particular information.”
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein cited the director’s handling of the email investigation and statements about reopening the probe just days before the election as part of the reason for his recommendation that Comey be removed from the bureau.
"The director was wrong to usurp the attorney general's authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution. It is not the function of the director to make such an announcement," Rosenstein wrote in a memorandum titled "Restoring public confidence in the FBI.”
"The director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial. It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do," Rosenstein continued.
Democrats, who had been calling for Comey’s firing over his handling of the Clinton investigation, remain up in arms about the fact that Trump actually did it.
McCabe is now in charge of the investigation into Trump’s supposed Moscow ties; meanwhile, his wife, Jill McCabe, accepted a $467,000 donation from an ally of Trump’s presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, while running for Senate in 2015.
The massive donation came from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, and was widely criticized as improper.
