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McCabe still gets his pension, doesn't he? Only he'll just collect 99.99% instead of 100%? It can't possibly be a all-or-nothing proposition, that would be an insane way to structure a retirement plan.
Defined benefit pension plans are more generous if you retire from active service than if you leave employment before retirement eligibility.
McCabe, as a 20+ year FBI agent, would be a participant in the Federal civil service plan. FBI agents with 20 years of service are eligible to start their pension at age 50. So if he resigned or quit on or after age 50, he would start collecting a pension that month and get a pension every month for the rest of his life.
Typically Federal employees that leave employment before retirement eligibility are able to start their pensions at age 60 if they have 20 years of service at the time they leave. I suspect that is what he will be eligible for.
In conclusion, he will not lose his whole pension. As you suggest, pension benefits are vested and can't be taken away. But by firing him a day before his early retirement eligibility it means he can't start the pension for 10 more years. What he loses is 10 years of pension payments. He'll still receive payments from age 60 to whenever he dies.
For someone at his level and length of service, he'll probably get a pension of ball park $50,000 per year. So this move will cost him about a half a million dollars.