[Latest: FBI official Andrew McCabe asks Justice Department not to fire him] 
 
 The FBI office that handles employee discipline has recommended firing the bureau’s former deputy director over allegations that he authorized the disclosure of sensitive information to a reporter and misled investigators when asked about it, leaving Attorney General Jeff Sessions to decide whether he should fire the veteran official just four days before his expected retirement date, people familiar with the matter said. 
 
 The recommendation from the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility is likely to add fuel to the political fire surrounding former deputy director Andrew McCabe, who abruptly stepped down from his post earlier this year but technically remained an FBI employee. 
 
 McCabe was hoping to retire Sunday, when he becomes eligible for his full benefits. If he is fired first, he could lose those. President Trump has long made McCabe a particular target of his ire, and the recommendation to fire the former No. 2 FBI official could give him new ammunition. 
 
 The disciplinary process is still ongoing at the highest levels of the Justice Department, and no final decision has been made on the discipline McCabe will face. The call will ultimately be made by Sessions because of McCabe’s seniority, a person familiar with the matter said. 
 
 Through a representative, McCabe declined to comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman said in a statement: “The Department follows a prescribed process by which an employee may be terminated. That process includes recommendations from career employees and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process. We have no personnel announcements at this time.” 
 
 Sessions is traveling on Thursday, though other officials at the Justice Department still have to consider the matter before he makes a decision. It is possible that McCabe could be fired 48 or 24 hours before he is able to retire. 
 
 An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment. 
 
 Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz has for some time been working on a report that blasts McCabe for allowing two high-ranking bureau officials to sit down with the Wall Street Journal as the news outlet prepared a report in 2016 on an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s family foundation, then misleading the inspector general’s team about his actions. A person familiar with the matter said Horowitz’s findings are what sparked the Office of Professional Responsibility’s recommendation, which was first reported by the New York Times. Horowitz’s report has not been released, and McCabe denies having misled anyone, a person familiar with the case said. 
 
 The inspector general’s office declined to comment. 
 
 [Report said to fault FBI’s former No. 2 for approving improper media disclosure, misleading inspector general] 
 
 McCabe, 49, had long been expected to retire on March 18, though he abruptly left his post earlier this year after his boss, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, was told of what the inspector general had found. 
 
 The situation now seems fraught for all involved. If the Justice Department does not move on the recommendation, conservatives might view officials there as unfairly protecting McCabe. Trump — who already has a strained relationship with Justice Department leaders — might be particularly displeased. 
 
 But if the FBI fires McCabe with just days to go before his retirement, it could be viewed as bending to the will of a vindictive president. Trump has previously suggested McCabe was biased in favor of Clinton, pointing out that McCabe’s wife, who ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Virginia legislature, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the political action committee of Terry McAuliffe, the then-governor of Virginia and a noted Clinton ally. During an Oval office meeting in May, Trump is said to have asked McCabe whom he voted for in the presidential election and vented about the donations. 
 
 The president remarked in December that McCabe was “racing the clock to retire with full benefits.” 
 
 The inspector general has since January 2017 been investigating the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the politically charged probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, which is separate from the foundation probe. McCabe represents but a piece of that work. 
 
 Horowitz is also examining broad allegations of misconduct involving former FBI director James B. Comey, including the public statement he made recommending that the Clinton email case be closed without charges and his decision 11 days before the election to reveal to Congress that the FBI had resumed its work. McCabe briefly took over as the FBI’s acting director after Trump fired Comey in May. 
 
 The matter McCabe authorized FBI officials to discuss with a reporter came just as the bureau announced it was resuming its look at Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, though the article focused more on the separate case involving her family’s foundation. 
 
 The article presented McCabe as a complicated figure — one who lower-level officials felt was stymieing their work, even though it detailed McCabe pushing back against Justice Department officials so the case could move forward. 
 
 The inspector general was interested in McCabe’s role in authorizing officials to talk about the matter, people familiar with the case said, because the article detailed ongoing criminal investigative work, which law enforcement officials are not normally allowed to discuss. 
 
 The Wall Street Journal report was written by Devlin Barrett, who is now a reporter with The Washington Post. Recently released FBI text messages show that Barrett had talked with the FBI’s top spokesman, Michael Kortan, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who worked for McCabe, two days before it was published. 
 
 Background briefings with reporters are common in Washington, particularly when reporters have information that officials feel compelled to respond to or add context to. In this instance, though, it might have been viewed as inappropriate because the discussion was focused on an ongoing criminal investigation. ||||| Jeff Sessions' decision will involve input from the senior career official at the Justice Department, Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools, a DOJ official said. | Stephen Lam/Getty Images Sessions mulls firing Andrew McCabe 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions is facing a decision about whether to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe just days before he is scheduled to retire, media reports said Wednesday. 
 
 In the wake of repeated public and private criticism from President Donald Trump, McCabe stepped down in January and announced plans to take accumulated leave in advance of his retirement. But if he is fired before Sunday, he could be deprived of the pension for which he is currently eligible. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility recommended McCabe's firing in response to allegations in an as-yet-unreleased inspector general's report, a source close to the investigation told POLITICO Wednesday. 
 
 The inspector general review covers the bureau's activities before the 2016 election, including the handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email account. The inspector general believed McCabe was not forthcoming during the review, triggering a disciplinary process that led to the recommendation he be fired, The New York Times and other outlets reported. 
 
 The DOJ watchdog's review has focused on alleged disclosures by McCabe in October 2016 relating to reports about his role in politically sensitive matters at the FBI and his wife's unsuccessful bid for the state Senate in Virginia. 
 
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 Some agents complained that McCabe's ties affected the email probe and other work the FBI was doing related to the Clinton Foundation. Text messages released to congressional investigators show the FBI sought to push back against the news stories. 
 
 Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores declined to discuss any aspect of McCabe's case but said officials are following established protocols for employee discipline. 
 
 “The Department follows a prescribed process by which an employee may be terminated. That process includes recommendations from career employees and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process. We have no personnel announcements at this time," she said in a statement. 
 
 A spokesman for the inspector general declined to comment on McCabe's situation. 
 
 The case puts Sessions in an awkward position between the president — who has criticized McCabe publicly and said he shouldn't be able to retire with his pension — and rank-and-file employees who might see firing McCabe as politically motivated. 
 
 "When you have Trump tweeting and Sessions under threat, I'm not really sure what justice looks like in this case," said former FBI assistant director Ron Hosko, who now runs the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. "What you have playing out now is very unusual." 
 
 Hosko said FBI employees facing discipline are normally entitled to protest any finding of wrongdoing and any potential punishment. Punishment is typically imposed after consideration of 12 factors, including an employee's work history, past punishment of other employees for similar conduct, "the notoriety of the offense or its impact upon the reputation of the agency," and the clarity of the policy violated. 
 
 An FBI spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the process. 
 
 Sessions' decision will involve input from the senior career official at the Justice Department, Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools, a DOJ official said. 
 
 Sessions recused himself last year from all decisions related to investigations stemming from the 2016 presidential election. However, Justice officials have stressed in recent days that his recusal does not cover personnel matters or issues related to the professional responsibility of department employees. 
 
 Elana Schor contributed to this report. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Pete Williams 
 
 WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night accepted the recommendation that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who took the reins of the agency during the turbulent days after the abrupt firing of James Comey, be terminated — two days before he was to retire and become eligible for full pension benefits. 
 
 Though McCabe — who has been attacked by President Donald Trump — stepped down as deputy director in late January, he remained on the federal payroll, planning to retire on Sunday. The firing places his federal pension in jeopardy. 
 
 Unlike Trump's removal of Comey last year, which produced widespread resentment inside the FBI, McCabe's termination was recommended by the agency he served for 21 years. 
 
 Sunday is McCabe's 50th birthday, which would have made him eligible for certain substantial retirement benefits. 
 
 Related: McCabe: Trump wants to destroy me to stop Mueller probe 
 
 The FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility proposed the termination, based on the findings of the Justice Department's inspector general. That office has been examining the bureau's handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation. 
 
 "After an extensive and fair investigation and according to Department of Justice procedure, the Department’s Office of the Inspector General provided its report on allegations of misconduct by Andrew McCabe to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility," Sessions said in a statement at about 10 p.m. ET Friday night. "The FBI’s OPR then reviewed the report and underlying documents and issued a disciplinary proposal recommending the dismissal of Mr. McCabe. Both the OIG and FBI OPR reports concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions." 
 
 In statement released after the firing was announced, McCabe said: "This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work." 
 
 Related: Read McCabe's full statement after firing 
 
 As part of the inquiry, McCabe was questioned about conversations FBI officials had with a reporter in October 2016 regarding the FBI's investigation of the Clinton Foundation. The inspector general's report, which has not been made public, concluded that McCabe was not completely candid in answering questions about those conversations, according to officials familiar with the report. 
 
 The findings of the inspector general apparently played a role in McCabe's decision to step down in late January from the deputy director post. 
 
 In a message to employees at the time, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, "It would be inappropriate for me to comment on specific aspects of the IG's review right now. But I can assure you that I remain staunchly committed to doing this job, in every respect, 'by the book.' I will not be swayed by political or other pressure in my decision making." 
 
 After Comey was fired in May 2017, McCabe became the FBI's acting director. Two days later, he was asked at a congressional hearing if the shake-up was affecting operations. 
 
 "Quite simply put, sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people, and upholding the Constitution," he replied, a comment that cheered the FBI's rank and file. 
 
 But McCabe became a target of Republicans who questioned the FBI's impartiality in how the Clinton investigation was conducted. 
 
 When McCabe's wife, Jill, ran for the state Senate in Virginia in 2015, she accepted a donation from a political action committee controlled by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a friend and supporter of Hillary Clinton's — and that became the basis for a series of Twitter attacks from Trump. 
 
 "Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!" Trump wrote in July 2017, erroneously claiming that McCabe had a role in facilitating the contribution. 
 
 The next day, the president asked in a tweet, "Why didn't [Attorney General] Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of the Clinton investigation?" 
 
 Trump tweeted a shot at McCabe early Saturday, minutes after midnight. 
 
 "Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!" the president claimed. 
 
 In response to criticism that McCabe should not have played a role in the Clinton investigation, the FBI said he consulted with internal ethics officials who concluded that because his wife's campaign ended before the investigation began, there was no conflict. 
 
 The number-two official at the FBI is now Acting Deputy Director David Bowdich, who supervised the investigation of the deadly 2015 shooting at the San Bernardino, California, community center. ||||| A crowdfunding campaign to cover legal costs for Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director fired two days before he planned to retire and get a full pension, stopped accepting GoFundMe donations Monday night after soaring past half a million dollars over the weekend, a response McCabe called “overwhelming.” 
 
 The initial goal was $150,000, was quickly raised to $250,000, and the total has passed more than three times the initial target. By the time the fundraising ended, more than 13,270 people had donated $554,520. 
 
 McCabe’s team will soon transfer the funds to a “more formal” legal defense trust, said a spokesperson for McCabe, though they will still be accepting donations through the trust. 
 
 McCabe described himself and his team as “stunned and extraordinarily grateful.” “We wish to thank every donor from the bottom of our hearts for their support,” he said. 
 
 While donations poured in from the public, the effort faced criticism and questions about whether McCabe needed the money. 
 
 Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept, called the campaign “obscene,” mentioning McCabe lives in Loudoun County, Va., the richest county in the U.S. and that his wife is a doctor. A constitutional law professor on Fox pointed to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigation on McCabe — which hasn’t been released but was cited by Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a reason for the firing — to question why people are donating to McCabe without knowing more about his termination. 
 
 “Usually charity follows some clarity as to what’s involved,” said Jonathan Turley on Fox and Friends. 
 
 In his statement Monday, McCabe reiterated that the funds will help him take a stand against the circumstances of his firing, which he has characterized as politically-fueled and unfair: “It is not lost on me that each contribution reflects not just someone's well wishes, but also their acknowledgement that something in this situation is not fair or just,” he said in the statement. 
 
 According to the page, the defense will be focused on additional investigations from the Office of the Inspector General, congressional oversight hearings and “misleading information about the circumstances of [McCabe’s] firing.” 
 
 “The fact is that if I am going to continue taking a stand against the unfair way I have been treated, I will need the help of a talented and courageous team behind me. Hopefully our efforts, fueled by this incredible support, will encourage others to stand up for themselves, and the truth, as well,” McCabe’s statement said. 
 
 McCabe has been embroiled in political headlines for much of the last year for his work on the Clinton investigation and stepped down from his job as deputy director in January. He’s been a frequent target of the president’s Twitter, including a celebratory tweet on the day he was fired, and the White House press secretary has called him a “bad actor.” 
 
 Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018 
 
 McCabe has become increasingly vocal since his firing, vowing to stand up for himself and largely maintaining that he acted accordingly when approving media disclosures at the center of an investigation by the FBI’s OPR. 
 
 “Not in my worst nightmares did I ever dream my FBI career would end this way,” McCabe wrote in the Washington Post. 
 
 Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty Images, FILE 
 
 In an official statement from Sessions on McCabe’s termination March 16, he said investigations concluded that McCabe had made “an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.” 
 
 "The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability. As the OPR proposal stated, ‘all FBI employees know that lacking candor under oath results in dismissal and that our integrity is our brand,’” Sessions said. 
 
 McCabe issued his own statement calling his dismissal part of an “unrelenting assault on [my family’s] reputation and my service to this country.” 
 
 James Lawler Duggan/Reuters 
 
 "Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us." 
 
 "No more," McCabe said. 
 
 McCabe joined the FBI in 1996. Beginning in 2016, he served as deputy director of the FBI under former FBI Director James Comey. McCabe became acting director after Comey was fired and then resumed his role as deputy director when President Donald Trump’s appointee for director, Chris Wray, was sworn in the late summer of 2017. 
 
 Donations to the legal defense fund that remain after the legal proceedings will go toward charities of the family's choosing, the page said, and although it's difficult to predict what will come of McCabe's pension and healthcare benefits from more than 20 years in the FBI due to the complex federal system at play, "no funds raised for the Andrew McCabe Legal Defense Fund will be used for anything beyond his defense of the allegations against him,” the page maintained. 
 
 “He will continue to fight for the pension and benefits he deserves, rather than accept any crowdfunding for that purpose," it read. ||||| That's one way of protesting Andrew McCabe's firing as deputy FBI director, roughly a day before he was set to retire: At least one Democratic congressman has offered McCabe a temporary job so he can get full retirement benefits — and McCabe appears to be considering. 
 
 Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) announced Saturday afternoon that he has offered McCabe a job to work on election security in his office, “so that he can reach the needed length of service” to retire. 
 
 “My offer of employment to Mr. McCabe is a legitimate offer to work on election security,” Pocan said in a statement. “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of American democracy and both Republicans and Democrats should be concerned about election integrity.” 
 
 A spokeswoman for McCabe, Melissa Schwartz, didn't immediately rule out a job with one of the most liberal members of Congress, which might only need to last for a day or so for him to get his full retirement benefits: “We are considering all options.” 
 
 Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) tweeted that he'd consider hiring McCabe, too. 
 
 One suggestion from a McCabe supporter: if a friendly member of Congress hired him for a week he could possibly qualify for pension benefits by extending his service the extra days — Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) March 17, 2018 
 
 Would be happy to consider this. The Sixth District of MA would benefit from the wisdom and talent of such an experienced public servant. https://t.co/ynQWhdzQpC — Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) March 17, 2018 
 
 It's not immediately clear if getting fired from the FBI on a Friday and going to work on Capitol Hill on a Monday would solve McCabe's problems for certain, though at least one former federal official with knowledge of retirement rules says it probably would. 
 
 McCabe's team is confident that he had at least 20 years of law enforcement work under his belt — defined as carrying a weapon or supervising people who do — which made him eligible to retire on his 50th birthday on Sunday, with full retirement benefits. 
 
 With those 20 years, he would need to just go to work with the federal government for another day or so in any job he pleases, whether that's as a election security analyst for a Wisconsin congressman or a typist for a day, to get full benefits, said the former official who spoke to The Fix. The job doesn't matter so much as the fact that he's working within the federal government with the same retirement benefits until or after his 50th birthday. (Though this former official stressed that it would probably look more ethical if McCabe worked for at least a pay period rather than just one day.) 
 
 McCabe began working at the FBI's New York field office in 1996, was promoted to a supervisor position at the FBI's headquarters in 2006, and held various jobs at the bureau until 2016, when he was named deputy director. His final job at the FBI was an executive perch that likely doesn't count toward his law enforcement job, said the former retirement official. 
 
 McCabe stepped down from his FBI job in January amid attacks from President Trump, but he had been using up accumulated leave to get to his birthday to receive full retirement benefits — a move Trump attacked him for on Twitter after The Washington Post reported his plans. 
 
 FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe late Friday night, about 26 hours before McCabe's retirement, citing an inspector general report from the Justice Department that had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.” 
 
 McCabe spent hours at the FBI on Thursday pleading with officials to let him keep his job until he hit full retirement benefits. 
 
 On Saturday evening, a spokesman for Pocan said they hadn’t yet heard from McCabe on his job offer. 
 
 Matt Zapotowsky contributed to this report.
– Though he's left his Justice Department post, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's retirement doesn't technically take effect until Sunday, when he becomes eligible for a full pension. And perhaps it won't at all. Sources say the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility has recommended McCabe be fired over the findings of a still-unreleased inspector general's review of McCabe's actions ahead of the 2016 election, including his decision to allow FBI officials to discuss an investigation of the Clinton Foundation with reporters, the New York Times reports. McCabe was found to have not been forthcoming in the investigation into those actions, reports the Washington Post, citing people familiar with the matter, leading to the recommendation. They say Attorney General Jeff Sessions has yet to make a decision, which McCabe could appeal. Still, DOJ sources expect the 21-year FBI veteran to be fired by Friday, putting his pension at risk. Such a move would be controversial, not just because McCabe would be the first deputy director fired in FBI history, the Times reports. The Post points out that going against the recommendation for termination would be no less controversial, since some might interpret it as the Justice Department "unfairly protecting McCabe." President Trump is no fan of McCabe: In addition to suggesting donations to his wife's unsuccessful campaign for state Senate in Virginia by a political committee run by Terry McAuliffe, an ally of Hillary Clinton, are evidence of bias, per Politico, Trump has previously called for McCabe's ouster and attacked him for "racing the clock to retire with full benefits."