President Donald Trump reportedly pressed acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe about who he voted for in the 2016 election, according to a new report by the Washington Post.
The meeting came after McCabe was tabbed to replace James Comey, who Trump fired in May of 2017. After exchanging pleasantries, Trump’s turned the conversation to who McCabe had voted for in the 2016 election.
McCabe said he didn’t vote, according to the officials, who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about a sensitive matter.
The news comes as the FBI is currently under siege from the right to discredit the organization as a partisan tool infiltrated by Democrats. The president himself has blasted McCabe on Twitter for his wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, receiving a donation from “Hillary Clinton puppets” when she ran for state Senate in Virginia. McCabe received a donation of $467,500 from the political action committee of then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Last night, Trump lashed out at the FBI over the missing texts from agents who sent derogatory messages about the president, though “50,000” is the number of overall messages found on FBI servers, not the number of missing.
Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2018
The right has jumped on the #FindTheTexts movement, believing they show a corrupt FBI that has a strong anti-Trump bias.
Now, congressional investigators are considering reinviting Comey to testify on Capitol Hill to discuss the accusations that are swirling around the texts.
According to Politico, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) wants to investigate whether the texts from FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page reveal that the agency chose not to charge Clinton with a crime for mishandling classified information before they spoke with her.
Strzok worked on the Clinton email server investigation, and he and Page were both part of the Mueller probe before being dismissed.
“There’s a mountain of evidence—a growing mountain of evidence—that seems entirely inconsistent with what he said under oath,” Ratcliffe said in calling Comey to return and testify before the House Judiciary Committee.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) endorsed the FBI secret society theory on Fox, saying that Strzok, Page, and others held secret meetings with the intent to bring down the president.
“I think there’s indications there was a number of high-level FBI official holding secret meetings offsite … More than just Strzok and Page. But understand Strzok and Page were very high level within the FBI,” he said.
Others on the right thing that a text from Strzok reveal the Mueller probe is a witch hunt.
An FBI agent involved in the Russia investigation in spring 2017 expressed hesitation about whether he should join up with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe because “there’s no big there there,” https://t.co/AuULscG6pA
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) January 24, 2018
The congressional push against the FBI comes as it was revealed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked that McCabe’s replacement, Christopher Wray, purge members of the FBI from the Comey era, specifically McCabe.
Trump asking McCabe who he voted for fits a pattern of behavior of the president. Before he fired Comey, it was reported that the president demanded loyalty from the FBI director. Trump has also lamented that Sessions has not protected him from the Russia probe.
