Yet another tell-all book about the Trump administration is on the way, and this one delves into the controversial firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
In a new book obtained by The Guardian, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe writes that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was upset when a memo he wrote was used by President Trump to justify Comey's firing in 2017, so upset he said he was "having trouble sleeping" over it.
The New York Times previously reported that Rosenstein was "shaken" over the Comey firing and felt "manipulated" by the White House. His memo criticized Comey's handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email use. Trump later said, though, that he was going to fire Comey regardless of whether Rosenstein wrote this memo. Comey's firing is of interest to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is reportedly investigating whether Trump obstructed justice with the move.
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McCabe's book also alleges that Trump ordered Rosenstein to write the Comey memo. “He said it wasn't his idea," McCabe writes of Rosenstein. "The president had ordered him to write the memo justifying the firing." Rosenstein also reportedly complained that "There's no one here that I can trust."
The White House in 2017 had denied Trump was involved with the memo being written, saying it was a "Justice Department decision," per The Washington Post. As The Guardian notes, Rosenstein also told Congress of the memo in 2017, "I wrote it. I believe it. I stand by it." Following the firing, McCabe says the White House began offering him protection in exchange for loyalty, "trying to work me the way a criminal brigade would operate."
