Mueller's team interviewed McCabe, asked about Comey's firing
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/17/politics/mccabe-memos-trump/index.html
Special counsel Robert Mueller's team interviewed former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and asked about the firing of FBI Director James Comey, a source briefed on the matter confirmed to CNN.
The source would not say when the interview, first reported by Axios, occurred.
Mueller also has memos written by McCabe documenting his conversations with President Donald Trump, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
The memos also detail what Comey told McCabe about his own interactions with Trump while he was FBI director, the source said, and are seen as a way to corroborate Comey's account in Mueller's probe on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Associated Press first reported on the existence of the memos and that the special counsel's office has them.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on Friday night, just over 24 hours before his 50th birthday and the date he was set to retire and begin receiving his anticipated pension, over accusations that McCabe directed FBI officials to speak to the media about an investigation tied to the Clinton Foundation and misled investigators about his actions.
Following his firing Friday, McCabe told CNN in an interview that he had four interactions with the President last May, while he was acting FBI director.
McCabe revealed that he had three in-person interactions and one phone call with Trump, in which the President berated him each time about his wife's failed Virginia Senate campaign.
It is unclear exactly what is in McCabe's memos and if he memorialized every interaction he had with the President. McCabe did not keep a copy of his memos after turning them over to Mueller, the source confirmed. A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined comment.
"In May, when Director Comey was fired and I had my own interactions with the President, he brought up my wife every time I ever spoke to him," McCabe told CNN. "Of course, I disagreed with him."
McCabe also confirmed that the President asked him who he voted for in the 2016 election, which was reported back in January and which Trump denied.
The former No. 2 official at the FBI told CNN that Trump did not bring up the agency's investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election.
Comey's memos
Comey revealed last year that he had kept memos while he was still FBI director about meetings and conversations he had with the President. Comey said his memos detailed conversations in which Trump asked Comey to pledge loyalty to him, state publicly that the FBI was not investigating Trump himself, and urged Comey to "let this go," referring to the then-investigation involving Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Trump has denied several of Comey's claims.
During his testimony on Capitol Hill last June, Comey acknowledged orchestrating the leak of his memos to the media a few days after he was fired in hopes that the Justice Department would appoint a special counsel.
The former FBI director's memos have also been handed over to the special counsel.
The IG is also sitting there with a full set of McCabe's emails that the court has ordered that he turn over to Judicial Watch but the IG is refusing to do so because they are part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Mueller might be looking for something in the notes to give him a lead but he is not going to be calling McCabe as a witness any time soon.
It could also backfire on Mueller because we know that he is looking to bag Trump and not just to find the truth. Since the existence of those notes is known, Trump's team is entitled to see them if he is charged or even as part of the plea dealing. If McCabe's notes don't record anything related to attempts to obstruct- other than Comey restating that just seeing the president made him uneasy- then that is exculpatory evidence that will work in Trumps favor.
Comey needs to watch his arse. You know the law and departmental rules require all FBI employees to report any attempts to influence their conduct or a case to their superiors or to the IG. Comey testified to Congress that he was uneasy about seeing Trump but did not think he was trying to influence him. Later, after he was fired, he started saying he thought he was trying to obstruct his investigation at that meeting. There is an appearance that Comey did not report Trumps attempts to influence his investigation as long as he thought his job was still there. Or that he did not think that he was influencing him until he was fired, then it became convenient to think that. Which is it Jim? A jury would want to know.