Grassley: Trump should ‘stay out of’ decision for new FBI deputy director

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Monday that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be removed from his post, but President Trump should stay out of the decision, Bloomberg News reported.

“He oughta be replaced. And I’ve said that before and I’ve said it to people who can do it,” Grassley said.

“Trump ought to stay out of it. I think it’s a Christopher Wray job,” he added, referring to the FBI director.

{mosads}McCabe is expected to testify this week in a private session with the House Intelligence Committee, which is one of multiple congressional committees conducting an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Republican lawmakers have in recent weeks expressed concerns about possible bias within the FBI after it was revealed that an agent on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team was removed for sending anti-Trump text messages.

Grassley has previously questioned McCabe’s impartiality.

Earlier this month, he suggested McCabe might have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal officials from using their offices to campaign for or against political candidates, when he used his government email account to promote his wife’s 2015 Senate campaign.

He complained over the summer that McCabe shouldn’t be named FBI director after Trump fired James Comey, citing McCabe’s wife’s political ties to Hillary Clinton. 

McCabe worked on the bureau’s investigation into whether Clinton improperly used a private email server.