Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy, describes the "remarkable" number of Trump-Russia contacts: NPR

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe condemned what he called "the relentless attack" of President Trump against the FBI, even as he continues to verify whether the Americans in the Trump campaign may have conspired with the Russians who attacked the 2016 election.

"I do not think we have ever seen in history an example of the number, volume and importance of contacts between people in and around the president, his campaign with our most serious, our enemy Existential International: The Government of Russia, "McCabe told NPR Morning edition. "It's just remarkable for me."

McCabe left the FBI after 21 years last March, after being fired for "alleged lack of sincerity" as part of an investigation into an independent press leak from the investigation conducted by the US. special advocate.

While he was refusing to conclude that Trump or his advisers were in collusion with Russia, Mr. McCabe stated that the special advocate that Robert Mueller had made public until today, including new ones. revelations regarding a meeting of the month of August 2016 between former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik. related to Russian intelligence – "is incredibly persuasive."

Trump goes back on what he accepts about Russia's interference in the 2016 election, but he denies that he or anyone else during his campaign has been complicit.

The president and the White House also focused on McCabe's dismissal and what critics call the conflict of interest in his wife's political campaign – she unsuccessfully the Virginia legislature as a democrat.

Putin's presentation

McCabe's new book, The threat: how the FBI protects America in times of terror and trump describes the difficulties and frustrations encountered during exchanges with the new President on sensitive issues of national security.

Exhibit A: An FBI briefing with Trump who had "completely derailed from the beginning".

McCabe said the topic was supposed to be the way Russian intelligence officers used diplomatic complexes inside the United States to gather intelligence on US intelligence agencies. These complexes were closed as part of the long diplomatic cooling between the two countries.

"Instead, the president somehow got on a diatribe," McCabe told NPR, explaining that Trump had changed the subject, saying that North Korea had not launched any missiles because the Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him that the US intelligence assessment was false and that "everything was a hoax".

In short, the president passed Putin's word to his own senior advisers.

"How do we transmit wisdom and knowledge and the best of our intelligence assessments to someone who chooses to believe our opponents over our intelligence professionals?" McCabe asked.

The surveys

McCabe became acting director of the FBI following the dismissal of his former director, James Comey, in the spring of 2017. He returned to the position of deputy director after the confirmation of the director, Christopher Wray, this fall.

McCabe confirmed that he had opened investigations into the counterintelligence and obstruction of justice in Trump after the dismissal of Comey, but had stated that the Justice Ministry leaders and himself had finally rejected the idea of ​​secretly registering the president.

FBI employees were crying in the corridors, writes McCabe in his book. Nobody knew if Trump – whose campaign was being investigated as a conspiracy with Russia – could have beheaded the leaders of the investigation to find out what might be underneath it.

The mood at the Department of Justice was so freaked out, said McCabe, that the new Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, has proposed to wear a recorder to gather evidence of Trump's intention to dismiss Comey.

"I was surprised by this offer," McCabe said in his interview with NPR. "I told him that I would think about it, I would discuss it with the investigators team and I would let him know." I spoke to my lawyers at the FBI Headquarters on this subject."

When this story was released last year in a report, Rosenstein was embarrassed and feared for his work. He also tried to point out that he had never made a secret registration – which is correct, said McCabe, because no one involved has ever attempted to tempt him.

"We all agreed that it was a horrible idea and that we would not pursue that," McCabe said. "So, although the Deputy Attorney General said that he had never allowed anyone to carry a wire, that's right, he never allowed it because we do not he never asked for this permission. "

McCabe says that he was fired wrongly

Upon his dismissal, just 26 hours before his federal law enforcement pension was acquired, McCabe said he intended to sue the Trump administration for dismissal. unjustified and other problems.

A man who fell in love with the FBI is now under criminal investigation for misrepresentation. A grand jury has been formed in the case, but it is not clear if prosecutors will bring criminal charges.

McCabe declined to participate in his interview with NPR after the findings of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, calling the report "selective presentation of evidence and conclusions designed to achieve the result that the President was clearly demanding".

Since the publication of excerpts and interviews surrounding McCabe's book, Trump tweeted at attack McCabe's credibility.

The former deputy director of the FBI asserted that it was further evidence that he had been singled out at that time and now.

But it's not just bad for him, he argued.

"What worries me in the future is being fired 26 hours before my retirement sends an incredibly scary message to the rest of the FBI men and women," McCabe said.

"It sends a message: if you defend what you think is right, and do what is right, and you respect your obligations to this organization and the Constitution, you too may be personally targeted and lose what you & # 39; We have built your entire career.