5 Takeaways From the Stunning First Excerpt of Andrew McCabe’s New Exposé on Trump and the FBI
An excerpt of Andrew McCabe‘s upcoming memoir, just published in The Atlantic, contains a series of stunning details surrounding the former FBI official’s interactions with President Donald Trump and the start of Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation.
The former FBI deputy director already made headlines Thursday after the release of segments from his 60 Minutes interview, in which McCabe said he and members of the Justice Department talked about the possibility of the 25th Amendment being invoked to remove Trump from office. McCabe also expressed his view that Trump possibly won the election with Russia’s help, which factored into his decision to launch investigations into the president.
The Atlantic published a excerpt of McCabe’s new book The Threat, which examines threats facing the United States and the effects of Trump’s relationship with intelligence community. The excerpt contains McCabe’s recollection of two bizarre conversations with Trump, along with his efforts to deal with the fallout from James Comey‘s firing:
Here are some of the most intriguing moments from this portion of the book:
1. Trump Blows Up Over Comey Flying on Government Plane for Security Reasons After Firing
Shortly after Comey’s ouster, McCabe took a call from Trump where the president went on a long-winded tangent about how the FBI was supposedly delighted by the firing. McCabe said the truth was quite the opposite even though he couldn’t tell the president that, and he was alarmed when Trump said he wanted to visit the Hoover Building in the near future.
“That sounded to me like one of the worst possible things that could happen,” McCabe writes. “He was the boss, and had every right to come, but I hoped the idea would dissipate on its own.”
Eventually, Trump got really indignant when he learned that Comey flew home on a government plan from Los Angeles just after learning he was out of a job:
I told him that bureau lawyers had assured me there was no legal issue with Comey coming home on the plane. I decided that he should do so. The existing threat assessment indicated he was still at risk, so he needed a protection detail. Since the members of the protection detail would all be coming home, it made sense to bring everybody back on the same plane they had used to fly out there. It was coming back anyway. The president flew off the handle: That’s not right! I don’t approve of that! That’s wrong! He reiterated his point five or seven times.
I said, I’m sorry that you disagree, sir. But it was my decision, and that’s how I decided. The president said, I want you to look into that! I thought to myself: What am I going to look into? I just told you I made that decision.
2. Trump’s Slights Against McCabe’s ‘Loser’ Wife
McCabe recalled that Trump seemed to take a sneering tone when the president asked how his wife, Jill, was taking her loss in her unsuccessful bid for a Virginia state Senate seat in 2015. This coincides with how Trump has mocked Mrs. McCabe’s loss in the past while also harping the fact that she received campaign donations from a PAC with connections to the Clintons.
“The president had said false and malicious things about [Jill] during his campaign in order to tarnish the FBI. He said, How is your wife? I said, She’s fine. He said, When she lost her election, that must have been very tough to lose. How did she handle losing? Is it tough to lose?
I replied, I guess it’s tough to lose anything. But she’s rededicated herself to her career and her job and taking care of kids in the emergency room. That’s what she does.
He replied in a tone that sounded like a sneer. He said, “Yeah, that must’ve been really tough. To lose. To be a loser.”
Jill McCabe hit back at Trump in 2018 with an op-ed that accused the president of spreading lies about her, saying her family took every ethical step possible to avoid mixing her political life with her husband’s.
3. McCabe Directly Compares Trump Oval Office Meeting to Dealing with Russian Mobsters
When McCabe went to the White House to meet with Trump, he described the Oval Office get-together as an expanded repeat of their conversation over the phone. As Trump maneuvered McCabe into saying he’s welcome to visit the FBI whenever he wishes, McCabe said: “I had no real choice” in that “bizarre performance,” and it caused him to have a flashback.
In this moment, I felt the way I’d felt in 1998, in a case involving the Russian Mafia, when I sent a man I’ll call Big Felix in to meet with a Mafia boss named Dimitri Gufield. The same kind of thing was happening here, in the Oval Office. Dimitri had wanted Felix to endorse his protection scheme. This is a dangerous business, and it’s a bad neighborhood, and you know, if you want, I can protect you from that. If you want my protection. I can protect you. Do you want my protection? The president and his men were trying to work me the way a criminal brigade would operate.
4. Hillary Clinton’s Emails Should’ve Had a Special Counsel Probe
McCabe held several meetings with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that focused on how to protect and establish terms of oversight for the ongoing investigations of Russia. In one of those meetings, McCabe argued for the formation of a special counsel because it would improve the investigations’ credibility and avoid missteps from the probe of Hillary Clinton‘s email scandal.
Later that day, I went to see Rosenstein again. This is the gist of what I said: I feel strongly that the investigation would be best served by having a special counsel. I’ve been thinking about the Clinton email case and how we got twisted in knots over how to announce a result that did not include bringing charges against anyone. Had we appointed a special counsel in the Clinton case, we might not be in the present situation. Unless or until you make the decision to appoint a special counsel, the FBI will be subjected to withering criticism that could destroy the credibility of both the Justice Department and the FBI.
5. Rosenstein Says There’s No One He Can Trust
As McCabe worked to convince Rosenstein of the counsel’s necessity, he recalled that the Deputy AG seemed displeased with how the White House was framing Comey’s firing as though it happened because of his memo. This coincides with other portions of McCabe’s book suggesting Trump effectively ordered Rosenstein to write the justification, which made Rosenstein feel coerced.
After speaking to these points, Rod shifted his gaze. His eyes were focused on a point in space a few yards beyond and behind, toward the door. He started talking about the firing of Jim Comey. He was obviously upset. He said he was shocked that the White House was making it look as if Jim’s firing had been his idea. He was grasping for a way to describe the nature of his situation. One remark stands out. He said, There’s no one that I can talk to about this. There’s no one here that I can trust.
Read the excerpt here.
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