We've detected that JavaScript is disabled in your browser. Would you like to proceed to legacy Twitter? 
 
 Yes ||||| [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. ||||| Tweet with a location 
 
 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| 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. 
 
 The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. 
 
 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. 
 
 ||||| Mr. McCabe is a career agent, not a political appointee, so Mr. Trump has no direct say in his fate. The decision nonetheless comes at a moment of turnover in Mr. Trump’s national security team. On Tuesday, the president fired the secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, and named the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, to replace him. He tapped a veteran clandestine officer, Gina Haspel, to lead the C.I.A. 
 
 Firing Mr. McCabe, even on the recommendation of the disciplinary office, would be controversial. Among Mr. McCabe’s allies, the decision would raise the specter that Mr. Sessions was influenced by Mr. Trump’s frequent derisive comments. No deputy director in the history of the F.B.I. has been fired. 
 
 But Mr. Sessions would be able to point to a critical inspector general’s report and say he followed Justice Department protocol. The details of why the inspector general viewed Mr. McCabe as not forthcoming are not clear. Though F.B.I. disciplinary records show that drunken driving, domestic violence and assaults have been punished by suspension, when agents are found to have shown a lack of candor under oath, they are commonly fired. 
 
 The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, announced last year that he would investigate several contentious decisions made at the F.B.I. and Justice Department during the 2016 presidential campaign. In November, Mr. Horowitz indicated that he planned to issue a single report this spring encompassing his entire review, on matters including the F.B.I.’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. 
 
 There are no indications that Mr. Horowitz is prepared to release a broad report this week. It is not clear why he opted to handle Mr. McCabe separately and refer him for discipline before the release of the full report. A spokesman for Mr. Horowitz has declined to comment. 
 
 Mr. Trump has attacked members of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department for much of his first year in office. But few have been the target of presidential ire like Mr. McCabe. Mr. Trump has repeatedly remarked on the fact that Mr. McCabe’s wife, Jill, ran as a Democrat for a State Senate seat in Virginia. Her campaign received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from a political committee run by Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia governor at the time and a longtime ally of the Clintons. 
 
 Mrs. McCabe lost the race and Mr. McCabe was later promoted to deputy director, where he oversaw the investigation into Mrs. Clinton. No charges were filed in that case, and Mr. Trump has pointed to the donations to Mr. McCabe’s wife’s campaign as evidence of F.B.I. bias.
– 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."