McCabe recently sat down with ABC News and said he wanted to make one thing clear: “I firmly believe what’s happening to me right now … is just a piece of an ongoing assault” on the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s looking into Russian efforts to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election and alleged collusion between Trump associates and Russian operatives.

McCabe said he “played a significant role and witnessed significant events” after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director last year, “so a concentrated effort to consistently undermine my credibility and my reputation makes perfect sense if you are trying to undermine the efforts of the special counsel and discredit the entire FBI.”

The undoing of McCabe’s career is “just the latest step in that process,” he said.