Former Attorney General Eric Holder
Eric Himpton HolderGOP's reaction to Trump ripping DOJ indictments: Silence
Bill Clinton eulogizes Franklin: Hillary and I were 'Aretha groupies' Buckingham Palace guard plays 'Respect' to honor Aretha Franklin MORE says that Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsDNC: Papadopoulos's UK contact may be dead Papadopoulos: Sessions was 'enthusiastic' about possible Trump-Putin meeting Manafort considering plea deal to avoid second trial: report MORE needs to “have the guts” to say no to President Trump
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Holder criticized Sessions at an event at Georgetown University on Monday, days after Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
Andrew George McCabeBruce Ohr's efforts to secretly reshape the Trump probe started earlier in summer '16 The Mueller probe's troubling reliance on journalists as sources Closing ranks around Brennan sends the wrong message MORE, who had been a subject of frequent criticism from Trump.
The former Obama administration official said Sessions may have rushed to fire McCabe at Trump’s request. The dismissal came just two days before McCabe was eligible for his pension.
“It may be that at the end of the day … [McCabe's] termination is appropriate," Holder said. "But you know, you don’t rush that component of it to meet a deadline that I think the president essentially set.”
“You're the attorney general of the United States. You run the damn Justice Department. You know? And you’ve got to have the guts to look at the president every now and again and say 'no,'" he continued.
Holder had already criticized the Trump administration over McCabe’s firing over the weekend. McCade's ouster allegedly came after damning reports from the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility and Office of Inspector General.
Analyze McCabe firing on two levels: the substance and the timing. We don’t know enough about the substance yet. The timing appears cruel and a cave that compromised DOJ independence to please an increasingly erratic President who should’ve played no role here. This is dangerous
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) March 17, 2018
Sessions fired McCabe on Friday, saying he hadn’t been fully honest with investigators and made an unauthorized disclosure to the media.
McCabe claims he was fired to try and undermine special counsel Robert Mueller
Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE’s probe into Russia's election interference, in which he could be a key witness.
Holder also criticized Trump for personally attacking McCabe, calling it ”unconscionable" and "punching down."
"You’re the president of the United States and you’re going after a career deputy FBI director ... who doesn’t really have the capacity to defend himself, certainly while he was in that position," he said.
—Gabriella Munoz contributed.
