https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1097539215800352768.html
(THREAD) What can we learn from CBS's interview with lifelong Republican and former FBI Acting Director Andy McCabe? A lot. In this thread I break down some of the major revelations—including a few I suspect you won't find elsewhere. I hope you'll read on and consider retweeting.
1/ Working from interviews with Jim Comey and Inspector General Horowitz's first report on Comey—the second is still forthcoming—I've written extensively about how a faction of rogue FBI agents in the NYC field office threatened illegal leaks until Comey reopened Clinton's case.
2/ I've written of how these rogue agents (a) used former Trump attorney—and current attorney for multiple Trump aides—Joe DiGenova to illegally leak to the media and threaten Comey via media, and (b) used Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani likewise to leak to media and threaten Comey.
3/ I've written of how these rogue agents, in conjunction with rogue NYPD officers—including, it appears, the man running the Weiner investigation, who donated to Trump's campaign in October 2016—leaked false info and/or coordinated false leaks with top Trump adviser Erik Prince.
4/ The question has always been how much Trump knew of what his advisers Giuliani, Prince, and DiGenova were doing to make contact with rogue FBI and NYPD officials, facilitate their illegal pre-election leaks to media, and use those leaks and a threat of more to blackmail Comey.
5/ This was critical because those illegal leaks were, per IG Horowitz, a major consideration in Comey reopening Clinton's case—a decision that, per polling data, gave Trump the presidential election. If Trump knew of these crimes, he was part of a conspiracy that made him POTUS.
6/ In the first minute of CBS's interview, McCabe reveals that Trump *was aware* of a bloc of FBI agents who'd been secretly working against Comey—we now know, by illegally leaking false information about the Clinton case to the media through Trump advisers—and said so to McCabe.
7/ "I heard that you were part of the Resistance," President Trump said to Acting FBI Director Andy McCabe. Trump went on to explain that he knew of a bloc of FBI agents who "did not support Jim Comey...[who] didn't agree with him, and the decisions he made in the Clinton case."
8/ America doesn't have to wonder how a GOP presidential candidate would "hear" about the *internal politics* of the FBI. I have linked repeatedly to articles and videos and interviews confirming DiGenova, Giuliani, and Prince were in touch with both Trump and these rogue agents.
9/ Comey has said he wants more than anything to protect the FBI's reputation. In pursuit of that goal, he has made a significant error: downplaying the significance of illegal FBI leaks to media to protect the FBI's reputation. Fortunately, the IG report set the record straight.
10/ Not only were the illegal FBI leaks to media about the Clinton case in October 2016 a major part of the Bureau's reasoning in reopening the Clinton case—as multiple agents told the IG—but *Trump himself is now tweeting daily* about how serious illegal FBI leaks to media are.
11/ Indeed, Trump, conservative commentators, and GOP Congressman are now calling for *massive investigations and criminal prosecutions* of FBI agents (in their view, including McCabe) who illegally leaked to media. Yet *that's exactly what Trump conspired to do in October 2016*.
12/ Eventually, McCabe was fired the day before his retirement by the chair of Trump's pre-election National Security Advisory Committee, AG Sessions—a major witness in the Russia case—and the result is that McCabe does not have the same delicate view of the FBI that Comey does.
13/ That McCabe—a former Acting FBI Director—is willing to talk implicitly the "Resistance" in the FBI in a way Comey wouldn't, even if obliquely, is a major feature of his CBS interview. Particularly important is what McCabe says about the fears he had one Comey had been fired.
14/ McCabe told CBS that, after Comey's firing, he ordered two investigations of the president (as we now know, both a criminal and a counterintelligence investigation, each focused on Trump's relationship with Russia) for a very clear reason. Here is what McCabe said to CBS:
15/ "I was very concerned," McCabe says, "that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground—in indelible fashion—[so] that were I removed quickly or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace." Those words matter.
16/ I've written extensively about how a far-right organization's FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch) led to the revelation of emails between McCabe and Comey right before Comey was pressured to reopen the Clinton case in which McCabe and Comey discussed rogue agents leaking case info.
17/ From those emails, it's clear that Andy McCabe (a) knew there were rogue pro-Trump agents in the FBI's NYC field office, (b) knew that those agents were illegally leaking to media, and (c) knew those leaks were putting pressure on the Bureau with respect to the Clinton case.
18/ But we now know something else: that when McCabe went into the Oval Office with all those—eminently reasonable and indeed wholly accurate—fears, the President of the United States *immediately* made reference to there being a "Resistance" within the FBI that Trump knew about.
19/ So when McCabe talks about being worried that open FBI investigations might suddenly be "closed or vanish in the night without a trace," understand that he is *speaking of the pro-Trump "Resistance" in the FBI*. He obviously knows Trump himself can't close FBI investigations.
20/ Therefore, Trump's knowledge of a Resistance in the FBI is a significant area of criminal inquiry that Trump, Prince, DiGenova, and Giuliani must all be asked about. While illegal FBI leaks to media are Hatch Act violations, they're even more dire when they swing an election.
21/ We also learn via McCabe's interview that Trump tried to recruit Rosenstein into a *Russia-related obstruction conspiracy* by asking his Deputy AG to *fraudulently* put in a memo recommending Comey's firing "Russia" as a reason. Rosenstein knew this implicated him in a crime.
22/ It is shocking to learn that *within 24 hours* of Trump's firing of the FBI Director, it was the belief of the nation's Deputy AG that Trump had followed up on that act—which the FBI believed was evidence of obstruction—with a solicitation for the DAG to *enter a conspiracy*.
23/ McCabe's interview—and his summary of Rosenstein's words the day after Comey was fired—underscores that Obstruction of Justice can indeed be seen by law enforcement as a *collusive crime* whose commission raises *counterintelligence* fears about a person's loyalty to America.
24/ To the extent "collusion" means anything outside antitrust law, we can say that a crime is "collusive" in its character if its commission raises counterintelligence fears that someone is wittingly acting as a foreign agent. McCabe is saying the FBI and DAG *feared collusion*.
25/ Side note: I recommend the video below, in which Trump transition team member and Trump adviser Devin Nunes admits that "good FBI agents" in the NYC field office who he considered "whistleblowers" came to GOP members of Congress in September 2016.
26/ Nunes refers to the same Resistance inin the FBI Trump did. Note: future Trump attorney DiGenova spoke to media about helping FBI "whistleblowers" get to Congress. Giuliani has described the Resistance as a sort of coup, ironic given Trump's allegations against the FBI now.
27/ It now seems self-apparent that Trump, Nunes, and others are alleging a "coup" within the FBI precisely *because* they're well aware that they participated in a "coup" within the FBI in October '16 that gave Trump the White House. Always accuse your enemies of what *you* did.
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