Kris Kobach Really, Really Did Not Want You To See This Deposition. Read It Here.
Sam Levine, HuffPost March 19, 2018
The morning after Donald Trump was elected President, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) wrote to an adviser on the president-elect’s transition team and told him that he had already started drafting a preliminary amendment to federal voting law. The amendment would alter the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to make it acceptable for states to ask people to prove they were citizens when they went to register to vote at a motor vehicle agency.
A few weeks later, Kobach traveled to Bedminster, New Jersey, to meet personally with Trump and some of his top advisers. As he was going into the meeting, Kobach was photographed holding a memo outlining a proposal for actions during the first year of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. The 23rd item on the page, at the bottom of the memo, suggests amending NVRA to allow states to impose a proof of citizenship requirement.
As Kobach defends Kansas’ own proof of citizenship requirement, he has fought hard to block the public release of both the memo and his draft to NVRA. He has also fought having to answer questions under oath about both.
Those efforts were largely unsuccessful, as both a federal district court and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said he had to answer questions about them. Kobach sat for an hourlong deposition with the ACLU lawyers suing him last summer, a tape of which was played during trial in Kansas City earlier this month. A partially redacted transcript of that deposition provides a unique insight into Kobach’s conversations with Trump and efforts to change federal voting law to allow states to provide proof of citizenship.
In the deposition, Kobach says that his proposal to amend NVRA was merely a “contingency” should he lose the lawsuit against the ACLU. He said he broadly discussed the issue of noncitizens voting with Trump ― who began tweeting that illegal votes cost him the popular vote shortly after his meeting with Kobach ― but did not come up with a specific plan to impose a proof of citizenship requirement. He also said they talked about ways to incentivize states to impose a proof of citizenship requirement and that he had discussed introducing legislation to amend NVRA with Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) should he lose the case against the ACLU.
What Happens Now That McCabe Is Fired? Consider These Five Things.
We appear to be experiencing a slow-motion “Saturday Night Massacre.”
By Andrew Cohen March 19, 2018
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By now, this much is clear: comparing our current constitutional “crisis” to Watergate only gets one so far. President Trump is far better situated to withstand the legal charges against him than President Nixon was four decades ago. That’s true even if, as some believe, the allegations against Trump and his people may be more pervasive than those swirling around Nixon and his crew before the latter resigned in disgrace. From Congress to the courts to the media, the institutional forces that checked Nixon’s power are far weaker today than they were in 1973 and 1974.
Count me among those who believe we are not yet at a “crisis,” but are witnessing instead a form of slow-motion “Saturday Night Massacre”—a rolling devolution in norms and standards, the latest iteration of which we endured Friday night when an attorney general who might be indicted himself for false statements fired a former FBI deputy director for reportedly lacking “candor.”
If Michael Horowitz is in the tank for Trump, the Justice Department is in even worse shape than we think it is.
In my dealings with the Inspector General over the years, I have found him to be an honorable, earnest public servant. Horowitz is a professional and not a partisan, which is why so many journalists, academics, and law enforcement specialists over the weekend urged caution about prejudging the merits of the report Attorney General Jeff Sessions used to justify McCabe’s firing. If Horowitz is feeling undue pressure from Sessions or the president, I am confident he would do something about it. If he’s become a Trump toady, I’d be shocked, and worried.
McCabe was cooperating with the Mueller probe before he was fired.
The special counsel has had those “contemporaneous notes” McCabe took about the Comey firing for a while now, so it’s not as though McCabe suddenly became a key witness in the investigation once Sessions fired him. McCabe’s testimony will not be altered by his sudden defenestration at the FBI. Trump knows this, which is why he is doing the only other thing he can do: attempt to undermine McCabe’s credibility. Who do you think Mueller believes more? Comey and McCabe and their contemporaneous notes, or Trump and Sessions? Trump understands this calculus, which is why the stronger the case against him gets, the more unhinged are his attacks on Mueller.
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Sessions has made a mockery of his recusal.
The Justice Department argues that the attorney general’s recusal doesn’t extend to personnel matters, like firing the former deputy director of the FBI who was investigating the subject matter of the recusal, but as Ryan Goodman and others have noted, that’s terribly weak sauce. The other big Sessions news of the weekend is that the paragon of ethics in Washington may have lied to Congress, and perhaps as well to Mueller’s investigators, about his role in the dance between the Trump team and the Russians in 2016. That puts him squarely on the hook for criminal charges if Mueller is so inclined.
Congressional Republicans are largely remaining silent.
If Trump, Sessions, or Rosenstein fire Mueller, and Senate and House Republicans do nothing but wring their hands about it, will you really be surprised? The tepid response to McCabe’s firing from the GOP caucus, and the new questions surrounding Sessions’ credibility, and the president’s deranged Tweeting, are additional warning signs that we shouldn’t presume these people are going to step up and be honorable Americans when the moment comes. “Sounding the alarm”? Hardly. Sen. Rand Paul’s comment—“I wouldn’t advocate it”—when asked how he would react if Mueller were fired tells you what you need to know about the courage behind that “libertarian” vote on Capitol Hill.
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John Dowd, one of the president’s lawyers, deserves the client he has (and vice versa).
I know that journalists have to share with the world what the president’s lawyers say. I know that part of the story here is whether and to what extent the president himself is signaling things through the comments of his advocates. But John Dowd’s Saturday “prayer” for an end to the Mueller investigation is one of those moments that might have been better downplayed, or even ignored. Every defense lawyer in history has prayed for the end to a prosecutor’s investigation into a client’s misconduct. Pro tip? Apply the same amount of skepticism the next time you see a story about negotiations between Team Trump and Team Mueller over a presidential interview.
Trump was going to name Gary Cohn head of the C.I.A. because, why not?
A Wall Street executive with zero relevant experience? Hired!
By Bess Levin March 19, 2018
Why not? By Alex Wong/Getty Images.
Fourteen months ago, the sentence “the Secretary of State has just learned he was fired via Twitter” probably seemed farfetched—maybe just slightly less ludicrous than the suggestion, by the president’s chief of staff, that the Cabinet official was warned of his imminent dismissal while on the can. But in Donald Trump’s world, where we all now reside, that‘s a totally normal set of events that actually happened. And now, we’ve learned that the situation was even more batshit behind the scenes, with the president apparently coming this close to making the sort of personnel decision that would’ve made tasking Ivanka with running the C.D.C. during an outbreak of the bubonic plague seem reasonable. Politico reports that before he decided he couldn’t take one more second working in the Trump administration, Gary Cohn was under strong consideration for the C.I.A. director job left vacant by Mike Pompeo, who’s set to replace Rex Tillerson at State. Yes, that Gary Cohn.
As National Economic Council director, ol’ Gar was more qualified than anyone working for Team Trump by a factor of 1,000. However, though he is many things—a former Goldman Sachs president, a shrewd trader, a guy who stands up for what he believes in (no indiscriminate tariffs!)—he also has zero background in national security. Appointing him to lead the Central Intelligence Agency would be like hiring me, your humble Levin Reportauteur, to perform brain surgery. Of course, to Trump, this made Cohn the perfect man for the job, by the same logic—you have no background for a job that requires a high level of expertise? You’re hired!—that probably informed decisions like the one to name Betsy “What are these things you call ‘books’?” DeVos education secretary and to reportedly consider firing scandal magnetDavid Shulkin at Veterans Affairs and replacing him with Rick “Where am I? Who am I?” Perry. According to reporters Eliana Johnson,Ben White, and Andrew Restuccia, Trump “informally offered Cohn the position, telling him he thought he’d be a good fit for the job, and Cohn agreed to take it.”
In the end, of course, the president decided to name Pompeo’s deputy, Torture QueenGina Haspel, to the C.I.A. role instead, and Cohn decided to run as far away as physically possible from Idiot Island. And while it’s unclear why Trump changed his mind—it’s possible this was just another instance of him letting words tumble from his mouth at random and not actually ever intending to make good on what he said or, more likely, he was smitten by her role running one of the agency’s most brutal “black sites,”—the real kicker is that we probably would have slept better with the wholly unqualified Cohn at the helm:
BUSTED: Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica caught on camera boasting about bribing politicians
Brad Reed March 19, 2018
Alexander Nix (YouTube)
Executives at Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by President Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, have been caught on camera bragging about their efforts to entrap politicians using methods such as offering bribes and liaisons with sex workers.
“In an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News, the company’s chief executive Alexander Nix said the British firm secretly campaigns in elections across the world,” the station reports. “This includes operating through a web of shadowy front companies, or by using sub-contractors. In one exchange, when asked about digging up material on political opponents, Mr. Nix said they could ‘send some girls around to the candidate’s house,’ adding that Ukrainian girls ‘are very beautiful, I find that works very well.’”
Nix also talked about setting up their candidates’ political rivals by giving them bribes that they would record and release on the internet.
“We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land for instance, we’ll have the whole thing recorded, we’ll blank out the face of our guy and we post it on the Internet,” he said.
Cambridge Analytica didn’t use its own employees to entrap politicians, however, as Nix said in the exchanges that they prefer to hire third-party operatives to do the work for them.
If anyone’s still hoping trump will somehow become “Presidential,” they’re as delusional as he exhibits daily.
If anything, he’s doubling down on pandemonium, by orchestrating chaotic episodes of the “Apprentice,” where at the end of the week, someone’s summarily canned and sent down the elevator to a waiting limo.
Unfortunately the impact of such fantasy playing out in the West Wing is not as benign as trump’s inconsequential reality show. Dedicated career employees like James Comey and Sally Yates, fired for refusing blind loyalty to king Donald, just fired Andrew McCabe, who backed up Comey’s narrative of his disputed encounters with trump, eminently respected business executive Rex Tillerson, unceremoniously fired by tweet after criticizing the Russians for dastardly deeds in Syria and in London last week, fired high level State Department official Steven Goldstein, who authored an official State Department statement that conflicted with White House accounts of how Mr. Tillerson was jettisoned, and countless additional federal career employees who’ve been fired, or have resigned like Gary Cohn, or retired in the face of trump administration discombobulation, are the intended consequences of trump’s scripted, bizarre notions of “Presidential” decorum.
trump’s done more damage to our institutions and governing infrastructure than any president in history and couldn’t care less about the human flotsam.
We’ve witnessed an unprecedented (40%) turnover in trump administration employees. Granted, many of these employees should never have been allowed near the West Wing or even through the front gate of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, considering dozens couldn’t qualify for security clearances, but this isn’t normal by anyone’s standards.
trump hired Scott Pruitt to head the EPA, even though Pruitt spent decades opposing the Environmental Protection Agency’s mandate to protect America’s air, water and land; hired Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, even though she’s been described as the strongest opponent of public education; hired Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy, even though he hadn’t a clue of what that job entailed; hired Ben Carson for Secretary of HUD because he once lived in an apartment; hired Wilber Ross for Secretary of Commerce apparently because he’s an expert at laundering Oligarchs money, hired Steven Munchin for Secretary of Treasury because he made a fortune foreclosing on Veterans and middle class mortgagees in distress after the financial collapse, hired Mick Mulvaney because he routinely railed against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and middle class entitlement programs; hired Tom Price, a staunch opponent of Obamacare and social safety net programs, for Secretary of Health and Human Services, before he was fired for insider trading in health stocks and squandering taxpayers money on extravagant travel expenses; hired Ryan Zinke for Secretary of the Interior because he, like trump, is bound and determined to turn over America’s National Parks and public lands to fossil fuel and mining interests.
I could go on and on but the point is, trump’s idea of “Best and Brightest” is in stark contrast to the Obama administration, who actually hired experts qualified and eager to improve their departments, not destroy them.
With a few exceptions, like Gary Cohn and Rex Tillerson, and probably Generals Mattis and McMaster, would any respectable major corporation or organization hire for department level positions, any of the unqualified and flawed characters trump hired as his “best and brightest?”
We soon learned, trump’s main focus was not to find and assign the “Best People,” who might exhibit expertise for a particular position in his administration, but to appoint someone keen on undermining the basic institutions America relies on to effectively govern in a democratic society. Sadly, Democratic principles are foreign to trump’s business and ethical sensibilities.
Is it any wonder this cast of political misfits have run amuck. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show struggles to keep a running list of all the casualties of trump’s administration. The show had to reconfigure her set so that all three columns showing more than 50 names could fit in the screen.
Most of the people brought into trump world seem to have one thing in common. They’re either adept at sycophancy or are tarnished individuals previously engaged in all sorts of dubious or criminal conduct. Fraud, money laundering, insider trading, domestic abuse, tax fraud, gambling, unbound avarice, no holds barred self dealing, back stabbing, or any form of anti social behavior is a plus on their resumes.
In any other administration in America’s history, these tarnished miscreants would have never been considered, let alone employed. But trump views their moral character flaws as a badge of courage, examples of business genius and resourcefulness. Winning at all costs is integral to trumps idea of fairness and proof of a persons ideological bona fides.
Bad conduct seems a pre-requisite for entering trumps world, and unquestioned loyalty is required for staying there.
Once that loyalty fades for even a moment, the king issues the decree; “you’re fired!”
The list of casualties grows daily and is too numerous to mention here. But after the firing dust settles, trump moves people around like pieces on a chess board, not with any consideration of talent or fitness for the job but with the main goal of securing loyalty.
trump’s only left with rearranging the human deck chairs on the Titanic because most potential qualified applicants have enough sense to steer clear of this toxic environment.
No one’s surprised trump’s engulfed in the Stormy Daniels reality show scandal. No one’s surprised he cheated on his wife while she was carrying his child, or that he tried to cover it up. We’re no longer surprised when the daily calamity and sleaze oozes from the White House.
No one’s surprised trump’s looking for his 5th communications director. Lying to the public and the press is the primary prerequisite. No one’s surprised he fired Rex Tillerson with a Tweet, or that he lied to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then bragged about it during a campaign stop, or that he’s been trying to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions for months, or that he browbeat Sessions into firing Andrew McCabe a day before he was to retire and collect a pension, or that he’s chomping at the bit, to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Special Investigator Robert Mueller, National Security Advisor McMaster and probably at lease a half dozen other employees Fox News implores him to ditch and demean.
trump now claims “he’s almost got the cabinet he’s always wanted.” Wow! Wow!
trump is the ultimate tarbaby, the pre-eminent Brer Rabbit like trickster, who schemes and connives and creates havoc all along his gold plated career paths and in every situation he engages, but then wriggles free at the last minute by turning the tables on acquaintances, employees and business partners. He employs the Midas touch in reverse. Yet he seems to escape every self imposed calamity unscathed, while those who pledged their allegiance, believed in his shtick, who fell for his cons, have crashed and burned.
trump lives to denigrate anyone and everyone at one time or another, except for the Russians and Vladimir Putin, who if you watch late night talk show satire and Saturday Night Live skits, would be an easy target for trump’s particular form of belittlement.
But trump refuses to criticize the Russians and quickly fires anyone, including Tillerson and maybe soon McMasters, when they speak out publically about Russian transgressions. Why isn’t trump troubled by Russian threats to world stability, to our democratic institutions, our critical infrastructure and our national security? It begs the question, what are the Russians holding over our Demeaner in Chief?
Progressive Americans yearns for normal, for a social community where folks sit down together, using facts and principles, and applies logic and critical thinking to solve problems. We now realize that’s foreign to trump’s realm of thought. He disregards most expert advise, embraces wild conspiracy theorists, promotes controversy, exacerbates solvable problems and takes delight in White House employee infighting.
What would trump’s unflinching base of enablers say if President Obama had done a fraction of what trump calls winning? When will the Republi-con controlled congress decide they’ve had enough?
Here Are the Top Officials in the
Trump White House Who Have Left
Larry Buchanan, Alicia Parlapiano, Karen Yourish March 6, 2018
Gary D. Cohn, President Trump’s top economic adviser, is the most recent high-profile member of the White House to announce plans to depart the West Wing.
White House staff members were sworn in on Jan. 22, 2017, in the East Room.Photo by Al Drago/The New York Times
Below are the top White House officials who resigned, or were fired, dismissed or reassigned.
Stephen K. Bannon, Chief strategist
President Trump told aides in August he had decided to remove Mr. Bannon, a right-wing nationalist who has clashed with other senior White House advisers and members of Mr. Trump’s family. But a person close to Mr. Bannon said that he had submitted his resignation to the president earlier that month. Full story »
Gary D. Cohn, Chief economic adviser
Mr. Cohn’s decision to leave came after he seemed poised to lose an internal struggle over Mr. Trump’s plan to impose large tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Full story »
Mike Dubke, Communications director
Mr. Dubke told colleagues that the reasons for his resignation were “personal.” Full story »
Michael T. Flynn, National security adviser
Mr. Trump asked Mr. Flynn for his resignation more than two weeks after he was told that Mr. Flynn had lied to the vice president and was vulnerable to blackmail by Russians. Full story »
Sebastian Gorka, White House adviser
Mr. Gorka served as an adviser to the president on national security issues. Two administration officials said that he was forced out, and a conservative website reported that he had resigned. Full story »
Hope Hicks, Communications director
On Feb. 28, Ms. Hicks, one of Mr. Trump’s longest-serving advisers, said she planned to leave the White House in the coming weeks. Full story »
T. McFarland, Deputy national security adviser
Ms. McFarland, who was brought to the White House by Mr. Flynn, was named ambassador to Singapore last May. Full story »
Omarosa Manigault Newman, Director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison
A former contestant on Mr. Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice,” Ms. Newman was pushed out by Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, John F. Kelly, in December. Full story »
Rob Porter, Staff secretary
Mr. Porter cleared out his office in early February amid accusations of spousal abuse. Full story »
Dina H. Powell, Deputy national security adviser
The White House announced on Dec. 8 that Ms. Powell, one of the most influential women in the Trump administration, was going to step down. Full story »
Reince Priebus, Chief of staff
Mr. Priebus was pushed out, tendering his resignation after Mr. Trump told Mr. Priebus he wanted to make a change and offered the job to John Kelly. Full story »
Anthony Scaramucci, Communications director
He was fired by Mr. Kelly days after a vulgarity-laced telephone call with a New Yorker reporter was made public. Full story »
Keith Schiller, Director of Oval Office operations
One of the president’s most trusted aides, Mr. Schiller announced his departure in September. Full story »
Sean Spicer, Press secretary, communications director
Mr. Spicer resigned, telling Mr. Trump that he disagreed with Mr. Trump’s hiring of Mr. Scaramucci as communications director. Full story »
Katie Walsh, Deputy chief of staff
Ms. Walsh was forced out by Jared Kushner and other West Wing officials. She joined the pro-Trump outside group America First Policies.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Senior director for intelligence, National Security Council
Mr. Cohen-Watnick was appointed by Mr. Flynn. He was pushed out by Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who succeeded Mr. Flynn. Full story »
Tera Dahl, Deputy chief of staff, N.S.C.
A former writer for Breitbart News who was appointed by Mr. Flynn, Ms. Dahl left the White House for a post at the United States Agency for International Development.
Derek Harvey, Middle East adviser, N.S.C.
No explanation was given for his exit, but Mr. Harvey was appointed by Mr. Flynn and was widely reported to have been at odds with Mr. McMaster. Full story »
Rich Higgins, Director in the strategic planning office, N.S.C.
Mr. Higgins was forced out after writing a memo arguing that Mr. Trump was being subverted by an array of foreign and domestic enemies, including “globalists” and officials of the “deep state.” Full story »
Josh Raffel, Senior communications official
Mr. Raffel mainly served as a spokesman for Mr. Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser.
Michael C. Short, Senior assistant press secretary
Mr. Short, who had been close to Mr. Spicer, resigned shortly after Mr. Scaramucci confirmed to reporters that he was planning to fire Mr. Short. Full story »
Report: Trump Demanded Nondisclosure Pacts So Staffers Can Never Spill
Mary Papenfuss, HuffPost March 19, 2018
President Donald Trump has pressured senior White House staff members to sign nondisclosure agreements that are more sweeping than ever demanded by a president, The Washington Post reported.
The agreements are applicable to staffers while they’re working in the White House and “at all times thereafter,” meaning they continue to apply even after Trump’s presidency, according to a draft agreement examined by Post deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus.
The draft agreement says staffers could be fined as much as $10 million for unauthorized release of confidential information. Marcus wrote in an op-ed on Sunday that she suspects the penalty is lower in signed agreements.
All of Trump’s senior staffers appear to have signed the agreements, with some believing it unenforceable, Marcus reported. Trump, enraged by leaks, pressed for compliance early last year.
Marcus called such agreements that gag White House staff members even after the president’s term “not only oppressive but constitutionally repugnant.”
The draft agreement defines “confidential” information as “all nonpublic information I learn of or gain access to in the course of my official duties,” including “communications [with] the press” and with “employees of federal, state, and local governments.” The information cannot be revealed, even in a “work of fiction.”
Trump’s zeal against leakers was reflected in threats his attorney made Friday against porn star Stormy Daniels, who has she had a nearly yearlong affair with Trump in 2006. Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen warned that Daniels could be sued for as much as $20 million if she violates a non-disclosure agreement.
“60 Minutes” is set to broadcast an interview with Daniels on Sunday.
Ex-CIA Boss John Brennan Tears Into Donald Trump Over Andrew McCabe Firing
Lee Moran, HuffPost March 17, 2018
Former CIA chief John Brennan did not mince his words when taking aim at President Donald Trump on Saturday morning.
In a blistering tweet, Brennan blasted Trump for celebrating the dismissal of former FBI deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Trump would take his “rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history” once “the full extent” of his “venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known,” Brennan wrote.
“You may scapegoat Andy McCabe,” he added. “But you will not destroy America… America will triumph over you.”
Brennan’s tweet was in direct response to an earlier post from Trump, shortly after midnight, in which the president described McCabe’s firing as “a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI” and “a great day for Democracy.”
“This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally,” he wrote. “It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day.”
Earlier this month, Brennan said there was “deep, deep worry and concern” about America’s safety under the Trump administration.
The Telegraph
Donald Trump sacks ex FBI deputy Andrew McCabe days before retirement
Our Foreign Staff, The Telegraph March 17, 2018
Donald Trump has expressed his delight at the sacking of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, calling it a “great day for democracy”.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he sacked Mr McCabe two days before his scheduled retirement date on the recommendation of FBI disciplinary officials.
But the career FBI official said his dismissal was part of the Trump administration’s “ongoing war on the FBI” and Mueller investigation.
It comes ahead of an inspector general report expected to conclude that Mr McCabe was not forthcoming with the watchdog office as it reviewed the bureau’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Though McCabe had spent more than 20 years at the FBI, Mr Trump repeatedly condemned him over the last year as emblematic of an FBI leadership he contends is biased against his administration.
Mr Sessions said in a statement that investigators “concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorised disclosure to the news media and lacked candor – including under oath – on multiple occasions.”
Mr McCabe immediately disputed the findings in his own statement, saying the firing was part of a Trump administration “war” on the FBI.
“I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey,” Mr McCabe said, referring to the former FBI director who was fired by Trump last May.
The White House had said the firing decision was up to the Justice Department but seemed to signal this week that it would welcome the move.
Mr Trump rejoiced at the news on Twitter and renewed his attack on the FBI.
The termination is symbolic to an extent since Mr McCabe had been on leave from the FBI since last January, when he abruptly left the deputy director position. But it comes just ahead of his planned retirement, on Sunday, and puts his ability to receive pension benefits into jeopardy.
Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee, said the dismissal had an “odious taint”.
Mr McCabe came under scrutiny from the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office over an October 2016 news report that revealed differing approaches within the FBI and Justice Department over how aggressively the Clinton Foundation should be investigated.
The watchdog office had concluded that Mr McCabe had authorised FBI officials to speak to a Wall Street Journal reporter for that story and that he had not been forthcoming with investigators about that – something Mr McCabe denies, according to one person familiar with the matter.
Officials at the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility had recommended the firing, leaving Justice Department leaders in a difficult situation.
Youre fired: Who Donald Trump has sacked and who has resigned during his time as president
Mr Sessions, whose job status has for months appeared shaky under blistering criticism from Trump, risked inflaming the White House if Mr McCabe were to not be fired. But a decision to dismiss Mr McCabe two days before his firing carried the risk of angering his rank-and-file supporters at the FBI.
Mr McCabe, a lawyer by training, enjoyed a rapid career ascent in the bureau after joining in 1996. He was the FBI’s top counter-terrorism official during the Boston Marathon bombing and later the FBI’s national security branch and its Washington field office, one of the bureau’s largest, before being named to the deputy director position.
But he became entangled in presidential politics in 2016 when it was revealed that his wife during an unsuccessful bid for the Virginia state Senate had received campaign contributions from the political action committee of then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton ally. The FBI has said Mr McCabe received the necessary ethics approval about his wife’s candidacy and was not supervising the Clinton investigation at the time the contributions were made.
Timeline Donald Trump and James Comey
He became acting director following the firing last May of Mr Comey, and immediately assumed direct oversight of the FBI’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. As a congressional hearing two days after Comey’s dismissal, Mr McCabe contradicted White House assertions that the Trump campaign investigation was one of the “smallest things” on the FBI’s plate and also strongly disputed the administration’s suggestion that Mr Comey had lost the respect of the bureau’s workforce.
“I can tell you that the majority, the vast majority of FBI employees, enjoyed a deep and positive connection to Director Comey,” Mr McCabe said.
Mr McCabe was among the officials interviewed to replace Comey as director. That position ultimately went to Christopher Wray.
On Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the decision was up to the Justice Department but said “we do think that it is well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor and should have some cause for concern.”
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Getty Images
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Why not? By Alex Wong/Getty Images.
Alexander Nix (YouTube)
JohnHanno, www.tarbabys.com
