[Washington Times] In the burgeoning controversy about the FBI investigation of Donald Trump, one thing is clear: The decision by Andrew McCabe as acting FBI director to open a counterintelligence probe targeting Mr. Trump after he fired FBI Director James Comey was based on false pretenses.In his book "The Threat," Mr. McCabe says he opened that investigation and urged Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel based almost entirely on Mr. Trump’s comment to NBC’s Lester Holt that he thought about "this Russia thing" when he decided to fire Jim Comey as FBI director in May 2017.
Mr. McCabe interpreted those meandering words to mean that Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey because the director was pursuing the ongoing FBI investigation into interference in the election and Mr. Trump wanted to stop it. But as noted in my book "The Trump White House," Mr. Trump went on to say twice to Mr. Holt that he recognized that by firing Mr. Comey, he was probably prolonging the investigation and that he wanted it "to be absolutely done properly." It was the exact opposite of attempting to obstruct an investigation.
If Mr. McCabe had cited the rest of what Mr. Trump said, he would have exposed as baseless his own rationale for starting an investigation of Mr. Trump. But Mr. McCabe did not. Instead, in his book Mr. McCabe deliberately and dishonestly omitted the rest of what Mr. Trump said to Mr. Holt about his dismissal of Mr. Comey probably lengthening the Russia investigation.
Mr. McCabe went on to cite parenthetically the fact that in a "demeaning and dismissive way," Mr. Trump had referred to the ongoing FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election ‐ which included the possibility of collusion by the campaign ‐ as a "witch-hunt." So now defending yourself is reason to open an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against you.
