Fmr FBI Agent Rips Brit Hume Over McCabe Firing: ‘As Usual’ He ‘Has Zero Idea What He’s Talking About’

Fox News’s Brit Hume shot back at conservative commentator Max Boot on Saturday for suggesting the firing of deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe was an effort to undermine the agency and obstruct justice.

Hume mocked Boot’s argument as “all part of a Trump conspiracy”:

What a crock. To believe this, you have to believe that McCabe did not mislead investigators, but the FBI’s own Office of Professional Responsibility claimed that he did and used that false claim to recommend he be fired. It’s all part of a Trump conspiracy. And I’m Napoleon. https://t.co/yQXqelhUMy

— Brit Hume (@brithume) March 17, 2018

Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa, now a CNN analyst, responded to Hume in a lengthy Twitter thread that kicked off with the disclaimer, “As usual, [Brit Hume] has zero idea what he’s talking about”:

THREAD. As usual, @brithume has zero idea what he’s talking about. To understand why many agents, and indeed even the FBI Agents Association *which is non partisan) have issues with this, you have to understand an OPR in the FBI. The bar for “misconduct” is very low. https://t.co/j1UkesRoVb

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 18, 2018

Rangappa went on to explain the function of the Office of Professional Responsibility, and how it considers misconduct by FBI agents.

3. This is, of course, a good thing. OPR will investigate, e.g., a “misfiring” of a weapon. It will look into any discrepancies, whether in your use of the FBI’s database, or your use of your government credit card or your Bureau car or phone.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 18, 2018

4. But every agent knows people who got caught in OPR’s net, and it can be pretty brutal — and it’s why OPR is the bane of every agent’s existence. ANY infraction, no matter how small, can be “OPR’d” (yes, it’s a verb). And once you’re in OPR’s net, it’s hard to get out.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 18, 2018

8. I’m sure the process is designed to protect the integrity of the Bureau, and to not allow anyone to have preferential treatment. But to me it seemed like Reverend Hale from The Crucible — well-intentioned, but sometimes able to be carried away by its own zeal.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 18, 2018

10. To put another way: If anyone in the current administration or associated with it were held to the standard FBI agents are in OPR, there would literally be no one left in the Executive Branch. “Not remembering” in front of Congress? Correcting your SF-86 10 times? Yeah, FIRED

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 18, 2018

11. So Brit would be wise to save his sanctimony because members of the current admin are getting a pass that no one — and I mean NO ONE — in the FBI would ever get. From lying, to abusing government funds, to associating (and hiring!) with wife beaters and drug addicts.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) March 18, 2018

“So Brit would be wise to save his sanctimony because members of the current admin are getting a pass that no one — and I mean NO ONE — in the FBI would ever get,” Rangappa concluded.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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