McCabe’s claim prompts inquiry
Senator hits talks on Trump
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said his panel will investigate a claim by former FBI Director Andrew McCabe that Justice Department officials once discussed using the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office.
McCabe has said that after former FBI Director James Comey was fired in May 2017, officials at the department, including McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, discussed gathering the Cabinet to consider using the amendment to remove Trump. The Justice Department has not denied those discussions took place but said in February that department leaders did not believe there was any basis for invoking the 25th Amendment, which enables Cabinet members to seek a president’s ouster if they believe the person is unfit for office.
Graham on Friday sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr requesting documents related to those discussions.
“The Committee is deeply concerned with these discussions and whether they essentially indicate that two of the highest ranking law enforcement officials in the United States were discussing what amounts to a coup against the President,” Graham, R-S.C., said. “Accordingly, the Committee plans to conduct oversight into these discussions and related matters.”
Graham said he also has concerns about reports that Rosenstein had suggested wearing a wire to record conversations with Trump. The Justice Department has said that Rosenstein “never authorized” any recording.
The committee is requesting memos written by McCabe and all communications after Comey was fired that refer to the 25th Amendment or recordings of the president, among other documents.
Separately, Rick Gates, the former top deputy to onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, continues to cooperate with investigators in “several ongoing investigations” and is not ready for sentencing, according to a Friday court filing.
The request in Washington to delay sentencing was made jointly by special counsel Robert Mueller and Gates’ attorney, Thomas Green.
“The status of this matter has not changed substantially since the January report, as defendant Gates continues to cooperate with respect to several ongoing investigations, and accordingly the parties do not believe it is appropriate to commence the sentencing process at this time,” they wrote in a one-page update for U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia. The investigations were not described.
Gates pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiracy and lying to the FBI, becoming one of the first targets to cooperate in Mueller’s investigation.
He testified for the government against his former boss at Manafort’s August fraud trial in Virginia, which preceded Manafort’s guilty plea in another federal case in Washington.
Meanwhile, a defense lawyers for a onetime business partner of former national security adviser Michael Flynn want the government to disclose more of what it knows about Flynn’s admissions to Mueller.
At a hearing Friday in federal court in Alexandria, though, prosecutors said they’ve more than met their disclosure obligations.
Flynn’s former partner, Bijan Kian, is facing trial for illegal lobbying on behalf of Turkey. Kian and Flynn were pushing the U.S. to expel a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gulen, who is a nemesis of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kian’s lawyers say they expect Flynn will be the key witness at Kian’s trial, and they’ll need to impeach Flynn’s credibility as a witness. Flynn has already pleaded guilty to making false statements as part Mueller’s investigation, and Kian’s lawyers say they know more about Flynn’s lies from the public record than they do from what the government has disclosed from its files.
Prosecutors have said they have fulfilled their responsibility to provide information from their Flynn files that could be helpful to the defense. Indeed, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gillis said prosecutors have provided even more information that they’re required to from notes that FBI agents have taken in their interviews of Flynn since he began cooperating with authorities.
The judge at Friday’s hearing said he’s confident prosecutors will make the necessary disclosures. But he did order defense lawyers to make a list of specific categories where they feel they are entitled to more information, and ordered prosecutors to review it to see if additional disclosures are warranted.