Rosenstein did not want to write memo justifying Comey firing - new book
Rosenstein did not want to write memo justifying Comey firing new book
Deputy attorney general privately complained about Trumps order, according to Comeys former deputy Andrew McCabe
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/08/rosenstein-did-not-want-to-write-memo-justifying-comey-firing-new-book?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTAyMDg%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email
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In his sharpest criticism, McCabe writes that after firing Comey, Trump and the White House counsel, Don McGahn, acted like mobsters by in effect offering McCabe protection in return for loyalty.
The president and his men were trying to work me the way a criminal brigade would operate, McCabe writes, recalling an Oval Office meeting soon after his elevation to acting FBI director.
He confirms reports that Trump asked him how he voted in 2016. Having been a lifelong registered Republican, McCabe writes, he did not cast a vote for president that year. McCabe was later publicly attacked by Trump, who abused him and his wife in tweets.
McCabe portrays Trump and his senior aides as frequently distracted by TV news and suspicions of leakers in the White House. He is also sharply critical of Jeff Sessions, Trumps first attorney general, saying he had trouble focusing, frequently flew into red-faced rages and confused classified intelligence with things he had read in the media.
He accuses Trump of using the tactics and rhetoric of totalitarian dictators in persuading loyal shock troops that anyone who disagrees with them is a traitor.
Trumps heedless bullying and refusal to tolerate any view other than his own is nurturing a strain of insanity in public dialogue that is then further amplified by online media, McCabe writes.
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