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CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin defended fellow network contributor and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe after the Department of Justice rejected his appeal to avoid criminal charges for lying to federal agents.

“The Department rejected your appeal of the United States Attorney’s Office’s decision in this matter. Any further inquiries should be directed to the United States Attorney’s Office,” said an email sent to McCabe’s attorneys, a source close to McCabe’s legal team told the Washington Examiner.

While reporting on the topic, Toobin wanted to let viewers know McCabe is a respected coworker at the network.

“Let me just emphasize the point you started with. Andy McCabe is a CNN contributor, he is a colleague and a friend to many of us who work here. He’s here recently, but people need to factor that in to what they’re hearing,” Toobin said Thursday.

“This is an extremely unusual prosecution. Andy McCabe had the right to speak to reporters. That is beyond dispute as deputy director of the FBI, he had the right to speak to reporters. He also has an impeccable record one of the most honored and successful FBI agents of his generation,” he added.

Toobin also pointed out President Trump has been a heavy critic of McCabe.

“The president of the United States has been on a crusade to disparage and insult Andrew McCabe for literally his entire presidency. He has been saying that McCabe was corrupt. McCabe’s wife ran for the state Senate in Virginia as a Democrat before all of this happened, he’s claimed, the president has claimed some sort of bias,” he said.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe in 2018, less than two days before he was set to retire. His firing was prompted by a Justice Department inspector general report found he misled former FBI Director James Comey and investigators about leaks to the media regarding the Hillary Clinton emails investigation and an inquiry into the Clinton Foundation.