FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe resigned effective immediately Monday.
A source familiar with the situation told the Washington Examiner than McCabe is taking "terminal leave" for now until he can officially retire when his pension kicks in.
NBC reported that his retirement would take effect mid-March. In December, the Washington Post first reported his retirement would come in the spring.
According to an FBI spokesperson, the agency's No. 3, David Bowdich, has been named acting deputy director.
McCabe, who was acting director of the FBI from May to August 2017 after President Trump abruptly fired then-director James Comey, has been at the center of tensions between the White House and FBI leadership in recent months. Comey appointed McCabe to be deputy director in January 2016.
[White House: Trump not involved in FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's retirement decision]
Most recently, the Washington Post reported that after Trump fired Comey, he met with McCabe in the Oval Office and asked him whom he voted for in the 2016 election.
This month, the FBI released internal documents to show that McCabe’s oversight role in FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server began only in February 2016 when he assumed his role as deputy director — three months after his wife Jill McCabe lost her bid for a Virginia state Senate seat as a Democrat. Trump and other Republicans have said McCabe had a conflict of interest because of his wife’s election bid.
McCabe is still part of an investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general, who is looking into the FBI's handling of its Clinton probe. The results of that investigation are due out this spring.
McCabe’s name is also expected to be part of a controversial, classified four-page memo put together by the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee, according to the Daily Beast.
The committee was expected to vote on the release of the memo as early as Monday, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, McCabe, and Comey are reportedly named in it.
The memo reportedly details government surveillance abuses, specifically how the so-called Trump dossier was used to obtain a federal court warrant on then-Trump adviser Carter Page.
The Justice Department warned Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., last week not to release the memo, even though the White House has appeared to favor doing so.
Fox News reported FBI Director Christopher Wray viewed the memo on Capitol Hill Sunday.
The FBI has yet to publicly comment on the reports of his resignation.
McCabe, 49, has been part of the FBI since 1996, and has worked in its Counterterrorism Division and National Security Branch, having worked as part of the investigation into the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the arrest and interrogation of 2012 Benghazi suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder slammed McCabe’s departure as part of broader “bogus” attacks on the FBI and Justice Department.
“FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is, and has been, a dedicated public servant who has served this country well. Bogus attacks on the FBI and DOJ to distract attention from a legitimate criminal inquiry does long term, unnecessary damage to these foundations of our government,” he said on Twitter.
