Trump Accuses Former Justice and FBI Officials of Attempting a Coup

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, on Monday, February 17, accused former Justice and FBI officials of attempting a coup against him. Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Director of the FBI, stated on CBS's '60 Minutes' that Rod Rosenstein, former Deputy Attorney General, sought to invoke the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to remove the President due to suspicions regarding Trump's connections with Russia. Mr. Rosenstein has denied this claim. McCabe, who was himself removed from his position during Trump's administration, said he was trying to avoid interfering with Robert Mueller's investigation. During his tenure, Rosenstein appointed Mueller to investigate the Russia case. He resigned from his position in January of this year. In response to this interview, Donald Trump tweeted: 'This was an illegal attempt at a coup against the President of the United States.' In another tweet, he attacked Rosenstein and McCabe, stating that both were appointed by Jeff Sessions, the ousted Attorney General. McCabe: Trump 'may have committed a crime.' In another part of the interview, McCabe said that Donald Trump, by firing the FBI Director and publicly undermining the investigation into his campaign's contacts with Russia, 'may have committed a crime.' According to the Associated Press, he added that after the firing of James Comey, the former head of the FBI, in May 2017, the FBI had sufficient grounds to open a case regarding the possibility of collusion between Donald Trump and Russia, thus posing a security threat. He stated: 'The point is, if the President has obstructed justice and possibly fired the FBI Director because of negative influence on the Russia investigation and support from that country for his campaign, as an intelligence investigator, you must ask yourself: Why would a President of the United States do this?' The former FBI Deputy Director stated: 'As a result, these types of facts and evidence led us to wonder whether there was any inappropriate contact and relations between this President and our most dangerous enemy, the Russian government.' When asked whether Rod Rosenstein, the then-Deputy Attorney General, agreed with this investigation and the possibility of obstruction of justice, McCabe said: 'Definitely.' A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the content of this interview on Sunday evening. McCabe also revealed that when Donald Trump told Rod Rosenstein to give him his considerations regarding James Comey in writing (the same document that the White House initially presented as justification for Comey's firing), the President asked the Deputy Attorney General to specifically mention the Russia investigation. The former FBI Deputy stated: Rosenstein did not want to do this, and the administrative document released after Comey's firing did not mention the Russia investigation and focused on how the former FBI Director managed the Hillary Clinton email case. McCabe added: 'He explained to the President that there was no need to mention Russia in this administrative letter. But Donald Trump replied: I understand this, but I want you to include the Russia issue in this document anyway.' The Associated Press reminds that a few days after firing James Comey, Donald Trump stated in a television interview that he was thinking about 'this Russia issue' when he fired the former FBI Director. These actions, including another request from Donald Trump to the FBI to stop the investigation into Michael Flynn, the former National Security Advisor to the President, caused the FBI to become sensitive to the issue that Mr. Trump was illegally trying to obstruct the investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election. McCabe says: 'I believe the reason for my firing was the opening of an investigation against the President of the United States.'