Proudly written and presented by Sonya Artero
{O/C} In America, the deputy director of the FBI is stepping down.
While Andrew McCabe says he's leaving because he's tired of President Donald Trump attacking his character, critics say it has to with a secret memo that's bound to ruin him.
{Take SOT}
Criticism of McCabe first happened when former FBI director James Comey caught a government plane home right after Trump fired him.
{Soundbite}
CAROL LEE, NBC News Politics Reporter:
The president called, fuming that Comey would be allowed to take this plane home after being fired.
Then he suggested to McCabe that he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser and hung up.
{VO}
Trump was referring to McCabe's wife who ran for a senate seat as a Democrat.
She accepted a half-a-million-U.S.-dollar contribution from a group headed by a friend of Hillary Clinton.
After she lost, McCabe became deputy FBI director and played a key role in the Clinton email scandal investigation that candidate Trump called a conflict of interest.
{Soundbite}
DONALD TRUMP, Republican Presidential Candidate (October 24, 2016):
No wonder they (FBI) found nothing wrong.
{VO}
Despite evidence that Trump relentlessly bashed McCabe, the White House insists Trump never pressured him to quit.
{Soundbite}
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House Spokesperson:
The only thing that the president has applied pressure to is to make sure we get this resolved so that you guys and everyone else can focus on the things that Americans actually care about, and that is making sure everybody gets the Russia fever out of their system once and for all.
{VO}
Sources close to McCabe says he's stepping down because the Justice Department is about to issue a report that will strongly criticise him and FBI's handling of the Clinton probe.
Then there's the theory he's leaving over a classified memo Republicans voted to release.
It details how the FBI and Justice Department acted inappropriately when requesting surveillance warrants on Trump's campaign team.
While the revelation lends credibility to Trump's accusation the Obama administration wiretapped him, Democrats are crying foul.
{Soundbite}
ADAM SCHIFF, U.S. Representative (D), California:
Today, this committee voted to put the president's personal interest, perhaps their own political interest, above the national interest in denying themselves even the ability to hear from the department and the FBI.
But it does show how, in my view, when you have a deeply flawed person in the Oval Office, that flaw can infect the whole of government, and today, tragically, it infected our committee.
{VO}
Trump has five days to allow or object to the memo's release.
{Sonya Artero, TVB News.}
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