May 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May, 2017:\u00a0 it\u00a0was the critical moment in the fate of the Trump Administration.\u00a0\u00a0Rod Rosenstein took over as Deputy Attorney General at the beginning of the month.\u00a0He 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\u2019s actions in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.\u00a0\u00a0Rosenstein did so, without a \u201cfiring\u201d recommendation, but the President used it as his excuse for firing Comey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least that\u2019s what the President said at first. But a few days after Comey\u2019s firing, Trump told NBC\u2019s 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 \u201cgo easy\u201d on former National Security Director Mike Flynn, under FBI investigation for lying about talking to the Russians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is the stuff of 1960\u2019s novels: Seven Days in May, Night at Camp David <\/em>or The Manchurian Candidate. <\/em>But it wasn\u2019t 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, \u201cincapacitated\u201d by the investigation, could be \u201csuspended\u201d until the investigation was cleared. The process of the 25th<\/sup>Amendment 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 \u201con the table\u201d was ever used, but the mere discussion showed how extreme the situation was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McCabe, as the acting director of the nation\u2019s counter-intelligence agency, briefed the leaders of Congress, the \u201cgang of eight.\u201d While today we hear commentators calling the Justice Department actions an attempted \u201ccoup;\u201d 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, \u201cblew the whistle.\u201d While today Trump apologists say they were muzzled by security protocols, if it really was a \u201ccoup\u201d would these leaders have remained silent, especially Nunes who couldn\u2019t keep his mouth shut about anything else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pressure from the White House grew. Trump harassed McCabe in their first meetings, even insulting McCabe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McCabe was accused of making \u201cless than truthful statements\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cintegrity\u201d is in question. This week, in every interview Andrew McCabe gives he is asked about the Inspector General report that calls him \u201cuntruthful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew McCabe said, \u201c\u2026if the evidence is there, and we don\u2019t open a counter-intelligence case, even against the President of the United States, we aren\u2019t doing our job.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n They did their duty, at the cost of their careers.\u00a0\u00a0Rod Rosenstein is leaving the Justice Department next month, and rumor has it that the Mueller investigation will be finishing up soon.\u00a0\u00a0May of 2017 was the critical turning point, a time when dedicated men saved the investigation.\u00a0\u00a0March of 2019 could be when we find out if it was worth the sacrifice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"