May 2017
May, 2017: it was the critical moment in the fate of the Trump Administration. Rod Rosenstein took over as Deputy Attorney General at the beginning of the month. He was the acting Attorney General regarding the Russia investigation with Jeff Sessions recused. In his first few days on the job, the President asked him to write a memo regarding FBI Director Jim Comey’s actions in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Rosenstein did so, without a “firing” recommendation, but the President used it as his excuse for firing Comey.
At least that’s what the President said at first. But a few days after Comey’s firing, Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt, that he did it to stop the Russia investigation. To the FBI, it appeared that the President was trying to obstruct the investigation by firing those in charge. Comey had documented conversations with the President who asked him to “go easy” on former National Security Director Mike Flynn, under FBI investigation for lying about talking to the Russians.
Looking at the evidence, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe faced the possibility that the President of the United States was acting for Russian Intelligence. Still today we don’t know what other information he had, but it was in those May meetings, looking at all the options, that McCabe opened an investigation into the President of the United States himself.
It is the stuff of 1960’s novels: Seven Days in May, Night at Camp David or The Manchurian Candidate. But it wasn’t paperback fiction: there was real evidence that the President might be an asset of Russia. The leadership of the FBI and the Justice Department were faced with an extraordinary situation, and looked for extraordinary options. One of those actions could be that the President, “incapacitated” by the investigation, could be “suspended” until the investigation was cleared. The process of the 25thAmendment might be used for that. Another could be that the Deputy Attorney General could wear a microphone to conversations with the President, to gather more conclusive evidence. Neither of those options “on the table” was ever used, but the mere discussion showed how extreme the situation was.
McCabe, as the acting director of the nation’s counter-intelligence agency, briefed the leaders of Congress, the “gang of eight.” While today we hear commentators calling the Justice Department actions an attempted “coup;” in May of 2017 Congressional leaders: Ryan, Pelosi, Nunes, Schiff, McConnell, Schumer, Burr and Warner; all knew. They knew, and not one of them, not even Devin Nunes, “blew the whistle.” While today Trump apologists say they were muzzled by security protocols, if it really was a “coup” would these leaders have remained silent, especially Nunes who couldn’t keep his mouth shut about anything else?
The pressure from the White House grew. Trump harassed McCabe in their first meetings, even insulting McCabe’s wife. Rosenstein looked to somehow insulate the investigation, protecting it from executive interference. He determined to appoint a Special Counsel, and choose a man that everyone, on every side of the issue, had to respect and accept. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was brought in, and Rosenstein gave him the latitude to search for the truth.
McCabe was accused of making “less than truthful statements” to FBI investigators, and twenty hours before he could retire, was fired (no paybacks there, of course.) The FBI agent in charge of counter-intelligence investigations, Peter Strozk, was scourged by Republican Congressional committees, and ultimately fired from the Bureau. Department of Justice Russia expert Bruce Ohr was demoted, and FBI General Counsel James Baker removed.
All of the leadership team that sat with Comey and then with McCabe at those May meetings are gone from the Bureau, removed because of their participation in the investigation, damaged by attacks from the President. They have all been disgraced by the Rudy Giuliani/Jim Jordan propaganda machine, so that, should they ever testify, their “integrity” is in question. This week, in every interview Andrew McCabe gives he is asked about the Inspector General report that calls him “untruthful.”
It is the responsibility of the FBI to investigate attempts by foreign powers to infiltrate our government. Starting with the summer of 2016, the leadership of the Bureau had growing evidence that the Trump campaign was penetrated by Russian intelligence. It was the actions of the newly elected President, first regarding Mike Flynn, and then pressuring the Director to stop the investigation, that placed a target on the Oval Office.
Andrew McCabe said, “…if the evidence is there, and we don’t open a counter-intelligence case, even against the President of the United States, we aren’t doing our job.”
They did their duty, at the cost of their careers. Rod Rosenstein is leaving the Justice Department next month, and rumor has it that the Mueller investigation will be finishing up soon. May of 2017 was the critical turning point, a time when dedicated men saved the investigation. March of 2019 could be when we find out if it was worth the sacrifice.
