So much mystery has surrounded the entire Russia investigation, but the pieces are beginning to fall into place. The court documents of the indicted add tantalizing hints, but the books by insiders are a treasure trove of information. The Atlantic just released an excerpt of former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe’s book The Threat.
In the book, McCabe explains the tension in the Oval Office after Trump fired the FBI director James Comey. POTUS flew into a fit of rage over the matter of a simple ride home.
Comey learned that he had been fired when the news appeared on a television in the Los Angeles, California FBI room where he was delivering a speech.
Trump called McCabe right after he fired Comey in May 2017. He was happy about canning his FBI director and wanted to share his good news. McCabe wrote that Trump said those he talked to were “really happy:”
‘Boy, it’s incredible, it’s such a great thing, people are really happy about the fact that the director’s gone, and it’s just remarkable what people are saying. Have you seen that? Are you seeing that, too?’
Then, the situation went sour. The president was enraged that McCabe had given Comey permission to take the government plane he took to California for the return trip. McCabe described the scene:
‘(Trump) flew off the handle. (He yelled at McCabe) That’s not right! I don’t approve of that! That’s wrong!’
After that, the man sitting in the Oval Office commanded the former deputy director to look into how it came to be that the guy he had just fired received authorization to use the government plane.
McCabe was incredulous. He told Trump that it would be hard for him to do an investigation into himself. That gave the former deputy FBI director a lesson on who his commander-in-chief really was.
Just as Comey wrote contemporaneous memos after his conversations with Trump, McCabe followed in that FBI exercise. That way he had a strong record of:
‘A person who cannot be trusted.’
Then, Trump switched back into gloating about firing Comey:
‘The president launched back into his speech about what a great decision it was to fire Jim Comey, how wonderful it was that the director was gone, because so many people did not like Comey, even hated him—the president actually used the word hate.’
McCabe met with Deputy Director Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who was “obviously upset:”
‘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.(“)’
Featured image is the screenshot via YouTube.
