Andrew G. McCabe

I have never before read a book written from the vantage point of a high ranking FBI operative and I found the book fascinating. It is both an autobiography and a meditation on the importance of keeping intelligence investigations outside the realm of partisan politics.

Initially, McCabe's writing is clear, almost brusque and to the point. He provides the reader with objective evidence, devoid of emotion. He describes his early life, career choices and case assignments. His resume is show more impressive. He investigated the Russian mafia and its links to the Kremlin, 9/11, Benghazi, the Boston bombing and the Clinton e-mail scandal prior to James Comey's firing and his appointment as acting FBI director.

McCabe's tone changes as he recounts his encounters with Trump, Sessions et.al. He describes FBI processes and procedures and argues passionately for the rule of law, based upon factual evidence. The detailed accounts of the behavior of Trump, Sessions, and their total disregard for all protocol is chilling. Standing up to Trump costs McCabe his job and his pension. He is a courageous man and his story and passionate plea needs to be heard. show less

Andrew McCabe, at the time he Acting Director of the FBI, was fired on March 16, 2018, 26 hours before his scheduled retirement. The claimed reason was "lack of candor" in the Clinton email investigation. Even discounting McCabe's own account, it would appear that McCabe's "lack of candor" mostly consists of not being willing to pledge personal loyalty to Trump and support his preferred story in the face of the evidence, while not immediately rushing to say so while continuing to do his job show more properly, i.e., in compliance with the law, the Constitution, and FBI and DOJ policy, so that he could be more efficiently sidelined and forced out.

This is McCabe's story, of his career, and of the roughly the first eighteen months of the Trump administration and its scandals and creeping horrors. It's not really a book to enjoy. The sheer cruelty of firing McCabe 26 hours before his retirement--hard to defend even if the "lack of candor" ethical violations were real, given that they weren't a basis for prosecution--is just another example of who Trump is. Serious investigation of terrorism and organized crime compete for resources with Trump's attempts to use the FBI as his personal defensive operation and tool against his perceived enemies. McCabe gives us a fascinating look inside the FBI. At the same time, sometimes I was cheering him on and other times wanting to give him a whack upside the head. For instance, his own experiences ought to tell him that law-abiding citizens really do have sensible reasons for not being sanguine about federal law enforcement scooping up all of everyone's communications metadata (which is not, in fact, the content of your phone calls and messages, as he points out) or built-in backdoors to your phone and computer security software. Yes, there are times the government really does have legitimate reason to access your communications, and yes, good security hampers that, and yes, sorry, Mr. McCabe, but you were yourself struggling under the entirely legal supervision of people who should absolutely never be rusted with that kind of access. There's a real conflict between the legitimate needs of law enforcement, and the legitimate rights and concerns of ordinary, law-abiding Americans.

And that's before we even take note of the unavoidable reality that a built-in backdoor would, not might, but would be hacked by nefarious operators even if law enforcement were 100% composed of saints. Which, unfortunately, it not only isn't, but can't be. Nothing humans create is perfect.

But the meat of this book is of course the Clinton and Trump investigations, and the steadily increasing horror of fworking for a President who has no interest in and no understanding of the Constitution. It's not a fun book, but it is interesting and valuable.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. show less

I suppose I am behind the times reading Andrew G. McCabe’s book about the start of the Russia investigation and his retaliatory firing while America has moved on to the Ukraine scandal and impeachment, but the roots of the the current scandal are found in the earlier one. The Threat puts that threat squarely in the character of Donald Trump.

Everyone knows the outline of the story. Andrew McCabe refused to turn the FBI into Trump’s personal law enforcement force to be used to protect his show more friends and punish his enemies and was fired, not long after James Comey, the acting director was fired. The firing was an act of authoritarian overreach by a president who thinks “L’etat est-il.”‘

McCabe tells his story chronologically from training to his early cases bringing RICO charges against the Russian mafia to counter-terrorism investigations and the Boston Marathon and Underwear Bomber cases. Throughout he displays a punctilious dedication to the Constitution and Bill of Rights—advocating for conducting interviews with terror suspects that focus on rappor-building and making connections and opposing torture.

It is also intriguing to read how they develop cases, explaining some of the terms of art for the kinds of cases and how they go about them. When it gets to 2016 and 2017, he covers familiar territory though it is simultaneously alarming and reassuring that he found Trump irrational, disinterested, and corrupt. Reassuring because I feel the same and alarming for the same reason—recognizing the danger such an unqualified, incompetent, ignorant, and immoral head of state represents.

FBI agents know how to organize their thoughts and produce a clear narrative. They do it daily writing up notes of meetings and interviews. This makes McCabe an excellent explainer, clear and linear. He is a good writer, though he does not adorn the text with embellishment.

I can’t say I really ‘enjoyed’ The Threat atbecause after all, who enjoys reading about a feckless president who is a clear and constant danger to our democracy and constitutional form of government. I also think McCabe particularizes the threat too much in Trump. He does mention the spread of propaganda masquerading as news and the hyper-partisanship that seeks nothing but partisan wins. However, he’s a Republican, or he was, and is prone to both-sides delusions that this is a bipartisan disease. It isn’t.

The Threat at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan

Andrew G. McCabe – 60 Minutes interview

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/11/24/9781250207579/ show less

The low rating has nearly everything to do with the reader and much less to do with the author. I should have realized from the book blurb and even the book's title that "The Threat" would focus far less on the Trump era and more on McCabe's career in the FBI. Truth be told, I'm just not overly interested in the "inside baseball" logistics of counter-terrorism efforts. Given this reality, McCabe's deep-dive into specific investigations was way too detailed for my tastes and resulted in me show more giving up about halfway through the work. Readers who are fascinated by the nuts and bolts of internal criminal probes would likely give "The Threat" favorable reviews. show less