{"id":116665,"date":"2019-02-16T22:13:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T02:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=116665"},"modified":"2019-02-16T22:16:18","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T02:16:18","slug":"over-the-top-a-top-fbi-official-and-doj-dep-dir-floated-the-idea-of-the-25th-amendment-because-the-potus-justifiably-fired-the-corrupt-fbi-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=116665","title":{"rendered":"OVER THE TOP! A top FBI official and DOJ  Dep. Dir. floated the idea of the 25th Amendment because the POTUS justifiably fired the corrupt FBI Director?!?!?!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Andrew McCarthy: McCabe, Rosenstein and the real truth about the 25th Amendment coup attempt<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Andrew McCarthy | Fox News<\/p>\n<h4><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=6002954505001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\">foxnews.com<\/a><\/noscript><br \/>\n<strong>Top Republicans on Judiciary Committees call for McCabe and Rosenstein to testify<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Former Clinton adviser Mark Penn on fallout from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe&#8217;s allegations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Ever wonder why people hate lawyers? Consider\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/report-deputy-ag-rod-rosenstein-to-leave-doj-once-new-attorney-general-confirmed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein\u2019s non-denial\u00a0<\/a>denial of his participation in discussions of an attempted coup against the duly elected president of the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The story is being given a second life thanks to the hype surrounding the rollout of a new book by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/michael-goodwin-andrew-mccabe-is-a-national-disgrace-and-we-owe-him-a-big-fat-thank-you\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew McCabe<\/a>, the former deputy director of the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>McCabe, of course, was fired after an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/oig.justice.gov\/reports\/2018\/o20180413.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">inspector general investigation<\/a>\u00a0found that he leaked investigative information and then lied about it. He has been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2018\/04\/andrew-mccabe-collusion-obama-justice-department-clinton-campaign\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">referred\u00a0<\/a>to the Justice Department for consideration of a false-statements prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that, when he was acting FBI director after President Trump\u2019s May 2017 firing of Director James Comey, McCabe huddled with Rosenstein to mull over options for removing the president from office.<\/p>\n<p>But we have known this for six months \u2013 ever since The New York Times published its bombshell report. Indeed, at the time, I wrote a column about it for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2018\/09\/rod-rosenstein-resistance-president-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Review<\/a>\u00a0titled \u201cRod Rosenstein\u2019s Resistance \u2013 weasel words, weasel moves from an emotionally overwrought deputy AG eager to ingratiate himself with Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are really no new revelations in this week\u2019s breathless reporting. The story is a retread, trotted out again because CBS is hoping to generate ratings for its \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview of McCabe on Sunday night, the launch of the McCabe book tour.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pull-quote\">\n<p class=\"quote-text\">There has been a good deal of commentary this week about whether McCabe and Rosenstein were seriously brainstorming about a coup attempt; or whether, instead, discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment and possibly \u201cwiring up\u201d against the president (i.e., covertly recording him) were just graveyard humor.\u00a0 The truth is somewhere in the middle: The conversation was no joke, but the idea was lunacy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Let\u2019s put things in perspective. There has been a good deal of commentary this week about whether McCabe and Rosenstein were seriously brainstorming about a coup attempt; or whether, instead, discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment and possibly \u201cwiring up\u201d against the president (i.e., covertly recording him) were just graveyard humor.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is somewhere in the middle: The conversation was no joke, but the idea was lunacy.<\/p>\n<p>No one was in a joking mood when these discussions took place. McCabe was in the midst of formally opening a criminal investigation of the president, and Rosenstein was handwringing over the possible appointment of a special counsel.<\/p>\n<p>McCabe and the FBI\u2019s leadership had been trying to make a criminal case against Trump for months, and McCabe thought \u2013 wrongly \u2013 that the firing of Comey might be a sound legal basis for an obstruction prosecution.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=5987694162001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\">foxnews.com<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Rosenstein, meanwhile, was reeling. He had foolishly thought the memo he wrote justifying Comey\u2019s dismissal would win broad bipartisan praise.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Democrats strategically framed the dismissal as an attempt to obstruct the Russia investigation, and they lashed out at Rosenstein for his part in it.<\/p>\n<p>The deputy attorney general became despondent: convinced that Trump had made him the fall-guy; desperate to get back into the good graces of the anti-Trump Washington establishment, with which Rosenstein had heretofore enjoyed good relations. (At a time when it was difficult for Trump to get his nominees confirmed by the Senate, Rosenstein\u2019s nomination to be deputy attorney general was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/legislative\/LIS\/roll_call_lists\/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&amp;session=1&amp;vote=00114\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">approved<\/a>\u00a0by a lopsided 94-6 vote.)<\/p>\n<p>That is the context of the McCabe-Rosenstein discussion of the 25th Amendment. It was no laughing matter.<\/p>\n<p>Right after he fired Comey, Trump intensified the controversy by rebuking the former director in a White House meeting with Russian diplomats.<\/p>\n<p>Rosenstein and McCabe both concluded that the president was either unhinged or had possibly removed Comey in order to derail the Russia investigation (notwithstanding McCabe\u2019s Senate testimony, right after Comey\u2019s firing, that \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4775707\/andrew-mccabe-congress-testimony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>That is why the two men talked about \u201cwiring up\u201d against Trump \u2013 i.e., having someone covertly record him. This was neither idle talk nor dark humor. It was a logical aspect of their 25th Amendment brainstorming.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re going to convince people that the president is unfit, you need evidence of his unfitness. McCabe and Rosenstein were clearly considering whether they could secretly capture Trump saying things that were incriminating or crazy (or both). They could then use such recordings to try to convince top administration officials that the president needed to go.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=6002728872001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\">foxnews.com<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, while talk about invoking the 25th Amendment was serious, it was also ridiculous. The amendment has nothing to do with the situation McCabe and Rosenstein believed they were confronting: a president who is either potentially obstructing an investigation or not up to the obligations of the office.<\/p>\n<p>The 25th Amendment was adopted in the years shortly after President John F. Kennedy\u2019s 1963 assassination to address the potential problem of a president who is rendered physically or mentally unable to perform his duties \u2013 as, for example, President Woodrow Wilson was by a stroke.<\/p>\n<p>The amendment is not a substitute for the Constitution\u2019s impeachment process: If you believe a president is guilty of maladministration \u2013 of criminal, abusive, or incompetent behavior \u2013 the remedy is for Congress to impeach him, not to declare him physically or psychologically unfit.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, McCabe and Rosenstein were in no position to invoke the 25th Amendment. By its own terms, it can only be invoked by the president himself, or by the vice president in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet (or a congressionally authorized committee).<\/p>\n<p>Neither McCabe nor Rosenstein was a Cabinet officer. All they could do was speculate about which Cabinet officials might be amenable to considering a 25th Amendment ploy; and they quickly dismissed the idea because they realized they were nowhere close to a Cabinet majority, let alone to a green light from the vice president.<\/p>\n<p>So yes, it was a serious discussion; but it was also an ill-conceived discussion.<\/p>\n<p>That brings us to Rosenstein\u2019s denial of McCabe\u2019s acknowledgment of their 25th Amendment chatter. As the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/doj-rebuffs-andrew-mccabe-claim-that-rod-rosenstein-sought-to-oust-trump-inaccurate-and-factually-incorrect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington Examiner reported<\/a>\u00a0(the italics are mine):<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As to the specific portions of this interview provided to the Department of Justice by &#8217;60 Minutes&#8217; in advance, the Deputy Attorney General again rejects Mr. McCabe&#8217;s recitation of events as inaccurate and factually incorrect,&#8221; A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement. &#8220;The Deputy Attorney General\u00a0<em><strong>never authorized any recording\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>that Mr. McCabe references. As the Deputy Attorney General previously has stated, based on his personal dealings with the President, there\u00a0<strong><em>is<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment,<em><strong>\u00a0nor was the DAG in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment<\/strong><\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Could this statement possibly be more disingenuous? Consider:<\/p>\n<p>1. Rosenstein says he never\u00a0<em>authorized\u00a0<\/em>recordings. But no one claims that he did. The question is whether he and McCabe<em>\u00a0discussed the possibility of authorizing them<\/em>. If he could do so, Rosenstein would deny that this discussion happened at all. But he can\u2019t do that because the FBI memorialized it at the time. Since he can\u2019t credibly deny McCabe\u2019s admission that the two of them talked about recording the president, Rosenstein resorts to the shopworn tactic of distorting the allegation.<\/p>\n<p>2. Rosenstein asserts that \u201cthere\u00a0<em>is\u00a0<\/em>no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.\u201d No kidding. But the issue has never been whether there<em>\u00a0is currently a basis to invoke the amendment<\/em>. The question is: Did Rosenstein and McCabe consider\u00a0<em>whether there was a basis to invoke the amendment back in May 2017<\/em>, after Comey was fired. Plainly, they did.<\/p>\n<p>3. Rosenstein states that he was not \u201cin a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment.\u201d Again, he is being deceptive.\u00a0<em>Of course<\/em>, he was not in a position to consider invoking the amendment<em>\u00a0himself<\/em>. The 25th Amendment does not permit the deputy attorney general to trigger the process for removing an incapacitated president. But the question is whether Rosenstein and McCabe\u00a0<em>considered the possibility of amassing the majority of Cabinet officials who would be constitutionally qualified to invoke the amendment<\/em>. McCabe says they considered it and quickly realized there was no prospect of lining up a Cabinet majority. Rosenstein is now embarrassed to have engaged in this discussion; but, again, he cannot credibly deny it outright. So he blathers about not being in a position \u2013 i.e., not being constitutionally qualified \u2013 to invoke the amendment. That\u2019s beside the point.<\/p>\n<p>It is understandable that the deputy attorney general wishes he hadn\u2019t talked about removing the president. Legally, it was a harebrained idea. As a matter of civics \u2013 unelected bureaucrats brainstorming about how to reverse a democratic election \u2013 it was remarkably arrogant. But it happened, nonetheless. Rod Rosenstein\u2019s lawyerly evasions can\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/andrew-mccarthy-mccabe-rosenstein-and-the-real-truth-about-the-25th-amendment-coup-attempt\">https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/andrew-mccarthy-mccabe-rosenstein-and-the-real-truth-about-the-25th-amendment-coup-attempt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew McCarthy: McCabe, Rosenstein and the real truth about the 25th Amendment coup attempt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}