Trudeau acknowledges charges in Nijjar killing, calls for commitment to democracy
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who had been fired hours before his retirement as then-U.S. President Donald Trump's political furor toward him grew, has settled a lawsuit with the Justice Department, allowing him to officially retire and to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and his pension.
McCabe, now a CNN law enforcement analyst, was one of the central leaders of the early Russia investigation that pursued Trump's advisers and questions of whether the then-President had obstructed justice. In March 2018, two days shy of McCabe's scheduled retirement date, when he would have become eligible to receive early retirement benefits, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired him from the FBI.
In 2019, McCabe sued the department, alleging his dismissal had been politically motivated. The settlement this week, he told CNN, signals that "this should never have happened."
The New York Times was first to report on the settlement.
The agreement with the Justice Department, made public Thursday afternoon, includes major concessions for McCabe, such as Sessions' recommendation to fire him for lack of candor being wiped away, according to settlement documents released by Arnold & Porter, the law firm representing McCabe.
His firing, under the agreement, has essentially been rescinded, with the FBI's records being amended to show that he never had a blip of unemployment and that he retired in March 2018, the documents say. FBI personnel files also will remove record of McCabe having been fired.
That allows him to receive compensation since 2018, which he told CNN he believes is more than US$200,000. His lawyers will also be compensated for their work on his wrongful termination lawsuit, which amounts to nearly $540,000, according to the settlement records.
"I didn't file this ... suit to get rich off the Department of Justice," he said. "We've been through a really terrible experience over the last couple of years."
He will also have his FBI badge mounted -- a perk for senior bureau executives when they retire -- and get his senior executive service cufflinks, the settlement says.
McCabe told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview Thursday night that he believes the settlement is a message to government employees: "This is the current Department of Justice standing up for fairness and standing up for the rule of law."
McCabe and the Justice Department, as part of the settlement, agreed to say that "Executive Branch officials outside the Department of Justice and its components should not comment publicly on ongoing career civil service employee disciplinary matters ... so as not to create any appearance of improper political influence."
The department still denies that Trump administration officials violated any laws or the Constitution when Sessions fired McCabe.
During the Trump administration, the Justice Department had investigated McCabe for criminal wrongdoing -- coming close to an indictment -- then declined to prosecute him. He was never charged.
The DC US attorney in 2019 had been scrutinizing alleged false statements McCabe had made to investigators regarding his involvement in a newspaper report about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation published days before the 2016 presidential election.
Throughout, McCabe maintained that Trump's administration had been hounding him for political reasons and that he had never intentionally misled anyone.
In 2020, when it was announced that the Justice Department would not pursue charges against him, McCabe told CNN he didn't think he would ever be free from Trump and the rage the then-President directed toward him and his wife.
On Thursday, McCabe told Cooper: "I don't kid myself to think that (Trump) is going to put aside his horrific judgment, his constant lying and his tormenting of me and my family. I'm sure this will just add another log to the fire."
"He'll probably be saying all kinds of things about it tomorrow. But you know what, I'm just to the point where I don't care. I don't care what that guy has to say," he continued.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Princess Anne paid tribute to veterans buried at a cemetery in British Columbia today, laying a wreath to honour the more than 2,500 military personnel and family members buried there.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, edging out Forever Young and Sierra Leone for the upset victory.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.