One of the oldest tricks in a spy’s tradecraft.

Andrew McCabe, the disgraced former acting FBI director, reveals in his new book that Robert Mueller temporarily left his cell phone behind after a meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office and that the phone “later had to be retrieved.”

In June 2017, CNN first cited a White House official as saying that Trump had interviewed Mueller to potentially replace Comey one day before Mueller was named special counsel. CNN reported it was “unlikely” that Mueller informed Trump of his soon-to-be-announced special counsel gig. According to multiple reports, the White House was only given short notice that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was going to name Mueller as special counsel.

In his anti-Trump book, titled, “The Threat: How the F.B.I. Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump,” McCabe, citing Rosenstein, relates the story of Mueller leaving his phone behind after the interview with Trump.

McCabe did not explain why he included the detail in his book.

McCabe says that Mueller left the phone behind after Trump had interviewed Mueller as a potential candidate to replace James Comey as FBI director. The interview reportedly took place in the Oval Office just one day before Mueller had been appointed special counsel in the so-called Russia collusion case.

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