Disgraced former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe Andrew George McCabeThe FBI should turn off the FARA faucet John Durham's endgame: Don't expect criminal charges Carter Page sues over surveillance related to Russia probe MORE has provided clear evidence that in 2017 a small cabal of high-level officials inside the Department of Justice (DOJ) weighed whether to attempt to remove the duly-elected president of the United States. McCabe claims that he and others at the top of the FBI and DOJ held multiple discussions about invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to declare President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE unfit for office and install the vice president in his place. Is this proof that a rolling bloodless coup really existed within the government? McCabe himself previously provided false information to the DOJ, for which he was unceremoniously fired, rendering any statements he now makes while promoting his book highly suspect. But, given the underpinnings of the entire Russia collusion investigation and what we know now about its early steps, McCabe’s statements ring disturbingly true. ADVERTISEMENT The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides for a way to remove a president who is unable to perform the duties of the office. (This is different from impeachment, the proscribed method to remove a president for misconduct.) The vice president and a majority of cabinet officers must agree, in writing, that the president is unable to discharge the duties of the office. There is no provision for law enforcement — the FBI, lawyers at DOJ, or someone such as Andy McCabe — to force a president from office. Discussions on how, or whether, to attempt to exercise the 25th Amendment in this way is truly indicative of a coup mentality by career bureaucrats. It is hard to explain this kind of attitude except in the rankest of political contexts. McCabe’s claims that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Rod RosensteinProtect the police or the First Amendment? Rosenstein: Zero tolerance immigration policy 'never should have been proposed or implemented' Comey argues Trump shouldn't be prosecuted after leaving Oval Office MORE was part of this coup attempt are shocking. The deputy AG makes innumerable decisions every day that impact a massive number of issues; practically every decision the federal government makes requires his approval if it implicates legal or constitutional issues. That any person in that position would consider wearing a wire to obtain evidence against the sitting president, based upon thin allegations contained in the dossier ex-British spy Christopher Steele produced for the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonHillary Clinton takes on conspiracy theories on Borat special Top general: Russia, China will look to expand influence in Middle East as US pulls back We have a chance to halt climate change if we stop destroying carbon sinks and cut methane MORE’s campaign, should frighten every American. Though McCabe’s veracity is questionable, it does seem unlikely any serious deputy attorney general would joke about such matters. McCabe claims that he and others believed they were working for a president who might have conspired with Russia to betray this country. There must not be one scintilla of evidence of this; otherwise, special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerSenate Democrats urge Garland not to fight court order to release Trump obstruction memo Why a special counsel is guaranteed if Biden chooses Yates, Cuomo or Jones as AG Barr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel MORE surely would have taken steps long before now to rid the nation of such a dangerous commander-in-chief. It apparently has not occurred to McCabe that he looks cowardly if he really believed the president was conspiring with a foreign government in a way that compromised his loyalty to this country. And yet, McCabe blithely went about meeting with the president, continued to do his normal work, and said nothing about it publicly. Is it reasonable to believe a career law officer wouldn’t shout from the rooftops, and even risk his job, to blow the whistle on such a catastrophic potential national security risk? McCabe and his cabal knew that the entire Russia collusion narrative was bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign. We know McCabe knew this from the congressional testimony of former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr, who swore under oath (and he, unlike McCabe, was not fired for lying) that he told McCabe and others at the FBI that the Steele dossier was being pushed by a Trump-hater and should be relied upon with caution. By May 2017, McCabe implies he was in a state of panic on behalf of the gullible nation led by a Russian asset — but as Ohr said, McCabe and his cronies were aware that the explosive claims in the dossier were unverified. How could there be panic about unverified allegations? Also by May 2017, the FBI had months and months worth of “FISA take,” or data from the electronic spying on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and all those with whom Page communicated over months, or even years, prior to October 2016 when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant was signed. According to former FBI director James Comey James Brien ComeyThe FBI should turn off the FARA faucet Barr threatened to resign over Trump attempts to fire Wray: report 'Fox News Sunday' to mark 25 years on air MORE, none of that data resulted in any verification of the claims in the Steele dossier. Nonetheless, to these government bureaucrats it was acceptable to lie to the FISA Court by vouching for an unverified dossier. It was acceptable to them to illegally leak to the media the existence of the Russia investigation (for example, leaking the existence of a highly-classified FISA warrant on the Russian ambassador to destroy former national security adviser Michael Flynn and cripple the young presidency). And they apparently thought it acceptable to contemplate the use of the 25th Amendment to remove a president wholly capable of performing his constitutional duties.<doc-sep>Disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has now admitted in his new book that he ordered obstruction of justice and counterintelligence investigations of President Trump in retaliation for Trump’s firing of FBI Director and McCabe friend James Comey. McCabe was briefly serving as acting director of the FBI at the time he ordered the investigations of the president in May 2017. But he had no evidence whatsoever that President Trump had engaged in any wrongdoing involving dealings with Russia. Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page admitted during a closed-door congressional interview that when McCabe ordered the investigations “we still couldn’t answer the question…. It still existed in the scope of possibility that there would be literally nothing” to connect Trump with Russia. MICHAEL GOODWIN: ANDREW MCCABE IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE – AND WE OWE HIM A BIG, FAT THANK YOU That same month, former FBI counterintelligence chief and Russia probe leader Peter Strzok texted Page about his reluctance to join Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether Trump or his associates conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign to help Trump get elected. “My gut sense and concern is there’s no big there, there,” Strzok confessed to Page, with whom he was having an extramarital affair at the time. Undeterred, McCabe launched what amounts to an attempted coup to try to overturn the results of the presidential election that put Trump in the Oval Office. McCabe, Strzok and Page had long sought to prevent the American people from making Trump president of the United States. On August 15, 2016, McCabe convened a private meeting in his office with Strzok and Page. Later that day, Strzok wrote to Page: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office – that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” Trump’s “not ever going to become president, right? Right? !” Page asked Strzok. “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok assured Page. But the three conspirators failed to prevent the American people from electing Trump president. So McCabe hatched a new scheme. In an upcoming interview with “60 Minutes” on CBS, McCabe recounts how he attempted to recruit Cabinet members to oust the president from office using the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which empowers a majority of the Cabinet and the vice president to remove the president should be he “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” The unconstitutional power grab failed to gain any momentum. President Trump, after all, was not incapacitated. Conspicuously absent in the text of the 25th Amendment is any language empowering the deputy director of the FBI to overturn a presidential election because he disapproves of the result. When that plan stalled, McCabe considered asking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to secretly record his conversations with President Trump in order to entrap the president in some crime – any crime. When all else failed, McCabe told “60 Minutes” he focused his efforts on making the investigations into Trump-Russian collusion “indelible” lest he be “removed quickly or reassigned or fired.” McCabe’s firing later came to pass when the Justice Department inspector general discovered that McCabe had leaked to the media and lied to investigators. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Last April the inspector general referred his findings on McCabe to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible criminal prosecution. This week McCabe hit the airwaves to brag about his actions and plug his political tell-all book. The framers of our Constitution organized our republic as they did in large part to thwart petty tyrants like Andrew McCabe. Sadly, that carefully constructed system of checks and balances has broken down, and McCabe smiles for the cameras when he ought to be frowning behind bars in an orange jumpsuit. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MICHAEL KNOWLES<doc-sep>President Donald Trump on Monday seconded the allegation that there had been a coup attempt against him before heading out to play golf at his Florida club on Presidents Day. The president tweeted a quote from Fox News guest Dan Bongino alleging “an illegal coup attempt” against him, adding “true!” The message capped off a series of angry tweets Trump wrote on Monday about former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who gave an explosive interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday alleging that FBI Deputy Director Andrew Rosenstein repeatedly discussed using the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. The 25th Amendment is the part of the Constitution that details succession if a president dies or becomes otherwise incapacitated. The conversations came in the chaotic days after James Comey was fired as FBI director, McCabe told CBS, as the FBI became increasingly convinced that the president was obstructing into the agency's investigation in Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Rosenstein went as far to offer to wear a wire to the White House to gather information, McCabe said. (Officials have previously told NBC News Rosenstein made the remark sarcastically.) McCabe was later fired for lying to FBI investigators who were investigating a media leak, something McCabe said was well within the rights of his role to give. His latest media swing comes shortly before the release of a book about his time at the FBI. The Department of Justice said in a statement that they saw McCabe’s telling of "events as inaccurate and factually incorrect" saying that the department's "Inspector General found that Mr. McCabe did not tell the truth to federal authorities on multiple occasions, leading to his termination from the FBI.” In a string of five tweets Monday, Trump wrote that there were “so many lies” in McCabe’s interview, calling it “deranged.” “This was the illegal and treasonous 'insurance policy' in full action!” Trump wrote in another tweet. Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019 ....There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous “insurance policy” in full action! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019 In his Sunday interview, McCabe said that the president repeatedly worried the FBI by showing an affinity for Russia. In one meeting, McCabe said the president told an FBI agent that he did not believe U.S. intelligence on North Korea because President Vladimir Putin had disputed it. “Essentially, the president said he did not believe that the North Koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the United States. And he did not believe that because President Putin had told him they did not. President Putin had told him that the North Koreans don't actually have those missiles,” McCabe said in the interview on Sunday night. “Intelligence officials in the briefing responded that that was not consistent with any of the intelligence our government possesses to which the president replied, 'I don't care. I believe Putin,'" McCabe added, calling Trump's reaction “astounding” and “shocking.” McCabe was fired just hours before he became eligible to collect his pension, after a career within the FBI. He said on CBS he is considering suing to try and collect that pension.<doc-sep>Ever wonder why people hate lawyers? Consider Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s non-denial denial of his participation in discussions of an attempted coup against the duly elected president of the United States. The story is being given a second life thanks to the hype surrounding the rollout of a new book by Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI. McCabe, of course, was fired after an inspector general investigation found that he leaked investigative information and then lied about it. He has been referred to the Justice Department for consideration of a false-statements prosecution. ANDREW MCCARTHY: MUELLER’S REPORT IS FOR AN AUDIENCE OF ONE, BUT IT ISN’T PRESIDENT TRUMP There is no doubt that, when he was acting FBI director after President Trump’s May 2017 firing of Director James Comey, McCabe huddled with Rosenstein to mull over options for removing the president from office. But we have known this for six months – ever since The New York Times published its bombshell report. Indeed, at the time, I wrote a column about it for National Review titled “Rod Rosenstein’s Resistance – weasel words, weasel moves from an emotionally overwrought deputy AG eager to ingratiate himself with Democrats.” There are really no new revelations in this week’s breathless reporting. The story is a retread, trotted out again because CBS is hoping to generate ratings for its “60 Minutes” interview of McCabe on Sunday night, the launch of the McCabe book tour. There has been a good deal of commentary this week about whether McCabe and Rosenstein were seriously brainstorming about a coup attempt; or whether, instead, discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment and possibly “wiring up” against the president (i.e., covertly recording him) were just graveyard humor. The truth is somewhere in the middle: The conversation was no joke, but the idea was lunacy. Let’s put things in perspective. There has been a good deal of commentary this week about whether McCabe and Rosenstein were seriously brainstorming about a coup attempt; or whether, instead, discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment and possibly “wiring up” against the president (i.e., covertly recording him) were just graveyard humor. The truth is somewhere in the middle: The conversation was no joke, but the idea was lunacy. No one was in a joking mood when these discussions took place. McCabe was in the midst of formally opening a criminal investigation of the president, and Rosenstein was handwringing over the possible appointment of a special counsel. McCabe and the FBI’s leadership had been trying to make a criminal case against Trump for months, and McCabe thought – wrongly – that the firing of Comey might be a sound legal basis for an obstruction prosecution. Rosenstein, meanwhile, was reeling. He had foolishly thought the memo he wrote justifying Comey’s dismissal would win broad bipartisan praise. Instead, Democrats strategically framed the dismissal as an attempt to obstruct the Russia investigation, and they lashed out at Rosenstein for his part in it. The deputy attorney general became despondent: convinced that Trump had made him the fall-guy; desperate to get back into the good graces of the anti-Trump Washington establishment, with which Rosenstein had heretofore enjoyed good relations. (At a time when it was difficult for Trump to get his nominees confirmed by the Senate, Rosenstein’s nomination to be deputy attorney general was approved by a lopsided 94-6 vote.) That is the context of the McCabe-Rosenstein discussion of the 25th Amendment. It was no laughing matter. Right after he fired Comey, Trump intensified the controversy by rebuking the former director in a White House meeting with Russian diplomats. Rosenstein and McCabe both concluded that the president was either unhinged or had possibly removed Comey in order to derail the Russia investigation (notwithstanding McCabe’s Senate testimony, right after Comey’s firing, that “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date”). That is why the two men talked about “wiring up” against Trump – i.e., having someone covertly record him. This was neither idle talk nor dark humor. It was a logical aspect of their 25th Amendment brainstorming. If you’re going to convince people that the president is unfit, you need evidence of his unfitness. McCabe and Rosenstein were clearly considering whether they could secretly capture Trump saying things that were incriminating or crazy (or both). They could then use such recordings to try to convince top administration officials that the president needed to go. On the other hand, while talk about invoking the 25th Amendment was serious, it was also ridiculous. The amendment has nothing to do with the situation McCabe and Rosenstein believed they were confronting: a president who is either potentially obstructing an investigation or not up to the obligations of the office. The 25th Amendment was adopted in the years shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination to address the potential problem of a president who is rendered physically or mentally unable to perform his duties – as, for example, President Woodrow Wilson was by a stroke. The amendment is not a substitute for the Constitution’s impeachment process: If you believe a president is guilty of maladministration – of criminal, abusive, or incompetent behavior – the remedy is for Congress to impeach him, not to declare him physically or psychologically unfit. Moreover, McCabe and Rosenstein were in no position to invoke the 25th Amendment. By its own terms, it can only be invoked by the president himself, or by the vice president in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet (or a congressionally authorized committee). Neither McCabe nor Rosenstein was a Cabinet officer. All they could do was speculate about which Cabinet officials might be amenable to considering a 25th Amendment ploy; and they quickly dismissed the idea because they realized they were nowhere close to a Cabinet majority, let alone to a green light from the vice president. So yes, it was a serious discussion; but it was also an ill-conceived discussion. That brings us to Rosenstein’s denial of McCabe’s acknowledgment of their 25th Amendment chatter. As the Washington Examiner reported (the italics are mine):<doc-sep>
McCabe’s Story, If True, Describes Coup Attempt on Trump, Harvard Constitutional Scholar Says Andrew McCabe’s acknowledgment of a discussion on the use of 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump is tantamount to a coup plot, according to constitutional scholar and former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. By McCabe’s own admission, he and other top FBI and Justice Department officials discussed on May 2017 whether they could get a majority of Trump’s cabinet behind the idea to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. “If that’s true, it’s clearly an attempted coup d’état,” Dershowitz told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Feb. 14. McCabe, former FBI Deputy Director, tried to justify his position by the allegations that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia and that Trump may have obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey. After close to three years of multiple investigations the allegations haven’t been substantiated. Yet Dershowitz pointed to a deeper problem—even if Trump were to commit crimes, “the 25th Amendment simply is irrelevant to that,” he said. “That’s why you have an impeachment provision. The 25th Amendment is about Woodrow Wilson having a stroke, it’s about a president being shot and not being able to perform his office.” He further explained that the amendment requires medical assessment and an agreement of two-thirds of the Senate and the House of Representatives. “It has to be on the basis of a medical or psychological incapacity,” he said. “Not on the basis of even the most extreme crimes, which there’s no evidence were committed.” According to McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was involved in the discussions on invoking the amendment. The Justice Department pushed back in a Feb. 14 statement: “As the deputy attorney general previously has stated, based on his personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment, nor was the [deputy attorney general] in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment.” Rosenstein had a strong incentive to distance himself from McCabe’s remarks, Dershowitz’s assessment suggests. “Any Justice Department official who even mentioned the 25th Amendment in the context of President Trump has committed a grievous offense against the Constitution,” he said. “The framers of the 25th Amendment had in mind something very specific and trying to use the 25th Amendment to circumvent the impeachment provision or to circumvent an election is a despicable act of unconstitutional power grabbing.” “Trying to use the 25th Amendment to try and circumvent the Election is a despicable act of unconstitutional power grabbing…which happens in third world countries. You have to obey the law. This is an attack on our system & Constitution.” Alan Dershowitz. @TuckerCarlson — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2019 Investigator Investigated McCabe played a key role in the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign that officially started in late July 2016, in the midst of the presidential election season. The investigation was tainted with bias and potential abuse of surveillance powers. Text messages between then-FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok and his mistress, then-bureau attorney Lisa Page, demonstrated hatred toward Trump and support for Hillary Clinton. Page served as legal counsel for McCabe. McCabe personally reviewed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application for a warrant to spy on former Trump-campaign associate Carter Page. The bureau applied for the warrant using an unverified dossier of opposition research on Trump. The dossier was compiled by a former British spy and ultimately paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. “Disgraced FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe pretends to be a ‘poor little Angel’ when in fact he was a big part of the Crooked Hillary Scandal & the Russia Hoax–a puppet for Leakin’ James Comey. I.G. report on McCabe was devastating,” Trump wrote in a Feb. 14 tweet. Disgraced FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe pretends to be a “poor little Angel” when in fact he was a big part of the Crooked Hillary Scandal & the Russia Hoax – a puppet for Leakin’ James Comey. I.G. report on McCabe was devastating. Part of “insurance policy” in case I won…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2019 McCabe was fired from the FBI on March 16, based on the findings of the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) that he leaked information to the press to boost himself and then lied about it to his boss and investigators. As of September 2018, a federal grand jury in Washington started investigating McCabe’s leaks, according to The Washington Post.