This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Donald Trump returned to the attack against Andrew McCabe on Monday, in response to an interview in which the former deputy FBI director discussed his new book and made claims damaging to the president.

'I believe Putin': Trump dismissed US advice on North Korea threat, says McCabe Read more

In the interview, broadcast by CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday night, McCabe addressed, among other matters:

How the deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein was told by Trump to write a memo justifying the firing of FBI director James Comey in May 2017.

How, following the firing of Comey, McCabe ordered investigations of whether it was done to impede the investigation of Russian election interference and whether Trump was acting on behalf of the Russian government.

How he believes that is why he himself was fired.

Discussions about whether Trump could be removed from office under the 25th amendment.

Discussions about whether Rosenstein should wear a wire to record the president.

How Trump ignored US intelligence advice on North Korea’s nuclear capability and said: “I don’t care. I believe Putin.”

Trump attacked McCabe on Twitter on Thursday, when CBS released excerpts of the interview, and again on Sunday night, when it was broadcast in full. Before dawn on the Presidents’ Day holiday, he returned to the offensive.

“Wow,” the president tweeted. “So many lies by now disgraced acting FBI director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by [former attorney general] Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught.

“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. This was the illegal and treasonous ‘insurance policy’ in full action!”

He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged Donald Trump

Trump’s reference to an “insurance policy” was to a text message sent by Peter Strzok, an FBI agent, to a bureau lawyer, Lisa Page, about the Russia investigation and Trump’s chances of winning the White House.

On CBS, McCabe said Rosenstein brought up the possibility of removing Trump using the 25th amendment, which allows the vice-president and a majority of the cabinet to deem a president unfit to perform his duties.

“It was an unbelievably stressful time,” he said. “I can’t even describe for you how many things must have been coursing through the deputy attorney general’s mind at that point. So it was really something that he kinda threw out in a very frenzied chaotic conversation.”

The deputy attorney general also offered to wear a wire to record conversations with Trump, McCabe said.

“He said, ‘I never get searched when I go into the White House. I could easily wear a recording device. They wouldn’t know it was there.’ Now, he was not joking. He was absolutely serious.”

On Thursday, the Department of Justice said in a statement Rosenstein rejected McCabe’s version of events as “inaccurate and factually incorrect”.

“The deputy attorney general [DAG] never authorized any recording that Mr McCabe references,” the statement said. “As the DAG previously has stated, based on his personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th amendment, nor was the DAG in a position to consider invoking the 25th amendment.”

McCabe was fired by Sessions in March 2018, just short of retirement and after repeated attacks by Trump, including on his wife, a former Democratic candidate in Virginia. He was found to have “made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor” during an internal review of an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

McCabe denies that charge, over which he may yet be prosecuted. He told CBS he followed Department of Justice protocol in providing information to the Wall Street Journal, and said he believes he “was fired because I opened a case against the president of the United States”.

In his book, he offers an unflattering portrayal of Sessions, who resigned after the midterm elections.

The Guardian obtained a pre-publication copy of McCabe’s book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump. He writes that Rosenstein complained Trump forced him to write a now notorious memo justifying the firing of Comey.

The president may have been engaged in obstruction of justice in the firing of Jim Comey Andrew McCabe

He told CBS: “Rod was concerned by his interactions with the president, who seemed to be very focused on firing the director and saying things like, ‘Make sure you put Russia in your memo.’ That concerned Rod in the same way that it concerned me and the FBI investigators on the Russia case.

“If Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein listed the Russia investigation in his memo to the White House, it could look like he was obstructing the Russia probe by suggesting Comey’s firing. And by implication, it would give the president cover.”

Rosenstein, McCabe said, “explained to the president that he did not need Russia in his memo. And the president responded, ‘I understand that, I am asking you to put Russia in the memo anyway.’”

Publicly, shortly after Comey’s firing, Trump told NBC he had done it because of “this Russia thing”. He also invited a group of Russian diplomats into the Oval Office and told them: “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

McCabe told CBS: “The president had gone to Jim Comey and specifically asked him to discontinue the investigation of [the former national security adviser] Mike Flynn, which was a part of our Russia case. The president, then, fired the director.

“In the firing of the director, the president specifically asked Rod Rosenstein to write the memo justifying the firing and told Rod to include Russia in the memo. Rod, of course, did not do that. That was on the president’s mind.

“Then, the president made those public comments that you’ve referenced both on NBC and to the Russians, which was captured in the Oval Office. Put together, these circumstances were articulable facts that indicated that a crime may have been committed.

“The president may have been engaged in obstruction of justice in the firing of Jim Comey.”

Play Video 0:52 Andrew McCabe claims Trump believed Putin over US intelligence – video

The special counsel Robert Mueller, appointed after the Comey firing, is believed to be close to issuing his final report on Russian election interference, links between Trump aides and Moscow and possible obstruction of justice by the president.

Rosenstein did not want to write memo justifying Comey firing – new book Read more

He has charged and convicted Trump aides, including Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former lawyer Michael Cohen.

Trump denies collusion with Russia and has repeatedly called the investigation a “witch-hunt”. On Sunday he alleged “real collusion” among TV networks producing critical or mocking coverage of him, specifically in Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of him on Saturday Night Live.

In Congress, the political battle is intensifying. Democrats in the House are promising to investigate the president. Republicans in the Senate are vowing to fight back.

On Tuesday morning, for the third day in a row, Trump travelled to his golf club in Florida.

On CBS, McCabe was asked how he could remember conversations with Trump well enough to put them in a book. Like any good FBI agent, he said, he had written memos at the time.

Asked where those documents were now, he said: “Those memos are in the custody of the special counsel’s team.”

• This article was amended on 18 February 2019. An earlier version erroneously said that Rod Rosenstein had denied discussing the 25th amendment or suggested wearing a wire. In addition the article has been amended to correctly reflect the justice department’s response to McCabe’s allegations.