Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was recently fired by President Donald Trump, has stopped accepting donations to his legal defense fund after his GoFundMe page tripled its original $150,000 target, reaching over $500,000 in a matter of days.
The initial goal was later updated to $250,000 but in the end, the fund reached $554,520 early on Tuesday morning. It was created on March 29 and since then over 13,200 people have donated to it, Newsweek writes.
In a statement posted to the page on Monday, McCabe said that the support had been “simply overwhelming” leaving him “stunned and extraordinarily grateful.”
“I never imagined that I would need to rely on this type of assistance,” the statement continued. “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. It is not lost on me that each contribution reflects not just someone’s well wishes, but also their acknowledgment that something in this situation is not fair or just,” McCabe noted.
McCabe was dismissed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions a day before he was to become eligible for his full law enforcement pension. Sessions said McCabe had demonstrated a “lack of candor” and made “an unauthorized disclosure to the news media,” referring to an article which maintained the former FBI director had slowed an ongoing probe into the Clinton Foundation and misled investigators.
Trump tweeted his support for the decision, which he said marked “a great day for democracy.”
McCabe has dismissed allegations of wrongdoing, arguing that his firing is part of a “larger effort” by the Trump administration to discredit the U.S. intelligence community.
McCabe’s spokeswoman explained that the legal fund will be used to cover the costs of responding to requests from the Justice Department inspector general and oversight hearings in Congress. Any funds remaining in the fund after all legal action is concluded will be donated to charitable organizations chosen by McCabe and his family.
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