The Justice Department said Thursday that ex-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe gave an “inaccurate and factually incorrect” account in an soon-to-be-aired CBS News interview about 2017 discussions at the DOJ of recording President Trump.
McCabe, according to how CBS News’ Scott Pelley described the interview Thursday, recalled to CBS News discussions at the Justice Department about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump. The interview will air on 60 Minutes on Sunday evening.
Those discussions were previously reported by the New York Times, which said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had floated the idea of wearing a wire in his interactions with the President. The Justice Department at the time said the remark was made sarcastically, and Rosenstein told the Times that based “on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”
In the statement that the Justice Department provided to CBS News for the upcoming interview, that was also provided to TPM and other outlets on Thursday, a DOJ spokesperson reiterated that response.
“The Deputy Attorney General never authorized any recording that Mr. McCabe references. As the Deputy Attorney General 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,” the spokesperson said.
The statement alludes to what appears to be other claims McCabe made in the interview.
“Finally, the Deputy Attorney General never spoke to Mr. Comey about appointing a Special Counsel. The Deputy Attorney General in fact appointed Special Counsel Mueller, and directed that Mr. McCabe be removed from any participation in that investigation,” the spokesperson said. “Subsequent to this removal, DOJ’s Inspector General found that Mr. McCabe did not tell the truth to federal authorities on multiple occasions, leading to his termination from the FBI.”
