President Trump slammed Andrew McCabe, his former acting FBI director, on Monday, calling his claims “deranged.”
“Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe,” the president tweeted. “He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught.”
Mr. McCabe, who took over as acting FBI director when James B. Comey was fired from the position in May 2017, claimed in a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday night that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein seriously offered to wear a wire or invoke the 25th Amendment.
Last fall, The New York Times reported that Mr. Rosenstein had made that offer, but the Justice Department dismissed it as sarcasm.
“He was absolutely serious. And, in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had. I never actually considered taking him up on the offer,” Mr. McCabe said in his interview.
The DOJ refuted Mr. McCabe’s claims and dismissed them as “inaccurate and factually incorrect.”
SEE ALSO: Andrew McCabe says Rod Rosenstein sought to oust Donald Trump from office
Mr. Rosenstein is expected to depart from the Justice Department soon, now that William P. Barr has been confirmed as the new attorney general.
Mr. Trump appears to be swayed by Mr. McCabe’s story, despite framing him as a “disgraced” official and a liar.
“There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more,” he tweeted. “This was the illegal and treasonous ’insurance policy’ in full action!”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, threatened to subpoena Mr. McCabe and vowed to investigate his claims.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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