According to a new bombshell report by The New York Times, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe authored a memo confirming that President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey over the Russia investigation.
According to the report, McCabe gave special counsel Robert Mueller a memo documenting critical conversations he had in the wake of the former FBI Director James Comey’s firing.
The memo reportedly contains a record of McCabe’s conversation with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after President Donald Trump fired Comey.
A source familiar with the memo told The Times that Trump asked Rosenstein to refer to the Russia investigation as a reason for recommending the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey.
After the firing, the White House released a letter from Rosenstein detailing what he viewed was Comey’s mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email case, which the deputy attorney general believes was unfair to the former secretary of state. Rosenstein has since said that he did not intend his letter to be used to justify Comey’s firing.
But McCabe said that Rosenstein told him that the president asked that he mention Russia in the letter. McCabe reportedly thought this suggested that Comey’s termination may be tied to the Russia investigation, which raises questions of whether the president’s decision constitutes obstruction of justice.
In the days immediately following Comey’s firing, Trump acknowledged in an interview with NBC News that Comey was dismissed because of his oversight of the Russia investigation.
Mueller’s inquiry has since expanded to include whether Trump sought to obstruct the investigation by firing Comey.
McCabe was fired earlier this year by Sessions for allegedly making false statements to Justice investigators about disclosures to the media.
He has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
In addition to the memo related to the alleged Rosenstein conversation, the source familiar with matter said McCabe also authored other memos memorializing his encounters with Trump. Those memos also have been turned over to Mueller’s investigators.
McCabe appeared to follow the same protocol as Comey, who also authored memos about his controversial encounters with Trump, including an alleged conversation last year in which the president asked Comey to scuttle the FBI’s then-investigation into national security adviser Michael Flynn.
