"I was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and
won the election for the presidency and who might have done so with the
aid of the government of Russia, our most formidable adversary on the
world stage. And that was something that troubled me greatly.â€
Trump "might have†colluded with Russia, and with Comey now fired,
he had to do something about it. McCabe was later fired himself for
allegedly lying to investigators about leaking a story to the Wall Street Journaldefending the FBI’s conduct in the Hillary Clinton investigation.
McCabe says he was authorized by the FBI to release information to the
media.
Then, McCabe huddled with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein,
who he says offered to wear a wire to the White House to determine if
President Trump had intended to end the Russia investigation by firing
Comey.
he reason you would have someone wear a concealed recording
device would be to collect evidence and in this case, what was the true
nature of the president’s motivation in calling for the firing of Jim
Comey,†McCabe said in the interview.
When the FBI general counsel, James Baker, shot down that idea,
according to McCabe, Rosenstein’s next idea was to convince the Vice
President and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment — reserved for
physical incapacity of the President, like if he’s in a coma, and is
"unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office†— to remove
Trump from office. Rosenstein had denied a similar reportin Sept. 2018, saying only that "Based on my personal dealings with the
president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.†Now McCabe
says he was serious.
When CBS’ Scott Pelley asked McCabe, "Are you saying that the
President is in league with the Russians?†McCabe hedged, saying, "I’m
saying that the FBI had reason to investigate that. Right, to
investigate the existence of an investigation doesn’t mean someone is
guilty.†McCabe doesn’t know if Trump was a Russian agent, or doesn’t
believe he was. He is unwilling to say so publicly. UPDATE: In a separate interview with CNN,
McCabe would only say it was "possible†that the President was a
Russian agent, adding, "I think that’s why we started our
investigation, and I’m really anxious to see where [special counsel
Robert] Mueller concludes that.†He still didn’t know even as late as
March 2018, when he was fired.
On May 19, 2017, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was leading the counterintelligence investigation into Russia, texted Lisa Pageof the prospect of joining Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s
investigation that "you and I both know the odds are nothing. If I
thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part
because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.â€
On the other hand, Strzok speculated that it might be"[a]n investigation leading to impeachment†as he considered whether to
join the probe. Getting rid of Trump would be a feather in his cap.
Later, Page would testifywhen questioned by U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) that "It’s a
reflection of us still not knowing… it still existed in the scope of
possibility that there would be literally nothing†connecting Trump to
Russia.
At that point in the investigation, then, which began in the summer
of 2016, by May 2017 the FBI still had no idea if supposed Trump
campaign collusion with Russia was even real and were moving forward
with plans to circumvent the 2016 election because of what Trump
"might†have done.
The FBI was still relying on the dossier compiled by former British
spy Christopher Steele on behalf of the DNC and the Clinton campaign
that alleged the Trump campaign had helped Russia with the hack of the
DNC emails and publishing them on Wikileaks.
A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant was in effect
for at least Trump campaign advisor Carter Page (no relation to Lisa
Page) since October 2016, based on the Steele dossier’s allegations,
that presumably would have given investigators access to all his contacts, and his contact’s contacts.
Carter Page was accused by Steele of traveling to Moscow in June 2016
to work on the collusion plot while he was there to deliver a
commencement speech at the New Economic School.
If Steele was correct, then investigators should have been able to
pin the DNC hacks on Carter Page. But after months of spying on him and
the Trump campaign, transition and then administration, and even after
the Roger Stone indictment last month, they still had nothing.
Stone was accused of reaching out to Wikileaks after information that
the DNC had been hacked was publicly available, indicating no
foreknowledge by the Trump campaign of the hacks as Steele had alleged.
More than that, on July 13, 2018, when Russian intelligence officers
were accused of hacking the DNC and John Podesta emails, although at
times they were in contact with Americans, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein implored,
"There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen
committed a crime,†nor did the hacks alter any votes or the outcome of
the election. Here the Justice Department appears to have publicly said
that no Americans were involved with the hacking.
In May 2017, what the FBI knew was that Comey had been fired, and
they thought they knew why. It was proof of collusion and a plot to
obstruct the investigation. McCabe now says that the investigation into
Trump did not begin until Comey was fired and that he briefed Congress in May 2017 after he launched the probe.
It’s nonsensical, of course, they had been investigating Trump the
whole time via proxy. More than that, firing Comey did not prove the
Trump campaign had anything to do with the hacks. The investigation
into Trump came as retaliation for firing Comey who had overseen the
investigation into Russia, collusion and the whole nine yards.
In hindsight, maybe Comey was fired because they were leading a
false investigation into the President, accusing Trump of being a
Russian agent when he wasn’t, telling the President he wasn’t under
investigation when he was, as Trump stated in his letter dismissing Comey.
For lying to his face. But leaving that aside, before the FBI had
concrete evidence that the Trump campaign were responsible of working
with Russia to perpetrate the DNC hacks, officials were already
discussing ways to remove Trump, including impeachment, the 25th
Amendment and wearing a wire to the Oval Office.
They didn’t know if the charges were true, but they knew what the
outcome was going to be. Trump had to go. And now we know based on
everything the Justice Department has reached that the Trump campaign
was not a party to the DNC and John Podesta hacks.
It is hard to overstate the gravity of what was being attempted in
the upper ranks of the Justice Department. This was a nakedly partisan
assault by the Justice Department and the FBI on the presidency itself
to remove Trump who was duly elected.
It’s called a coup. More to the point, it was a failed coup. It
sought to overturn the outcome of the 2016 election. And now as
Attorney General William Barr takes the reins at the Justice
Department, he is faced with the dilemma that if there are no real
consequences for this coup, what’s to prevent the next one?
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
