The Threat

February 25, 2019
This polished combination career retrospective, manifesto about the FBI's value, and rebuttal to Donald Trump's smears tells former FBI director McCabe's side of the story. The narrative toggles between stirring descriptions of McCabe's career as an FBI agent (one of what he calls the "t-crossing, i-dotting, shoe-leather-destroying beasts") and his stint as acting FBI director after President Trump fired James Comey, concluding that the "work of the FBI is being undermined by the current president." Highlights of McCabe's career include taking down Russian mobsters (teeing him up for commentary about interference in the 2016 election), tracking down terrorists, and responding to the Boston Marathon bombing. Of those in Trump's administration, McCabe describes attorney general Jeff Sessions as obsessed with finding a nonexistent "immigration angle" on counterterrorism and, worse still, berating the FBI for things that were actually the Justice Department's remit; he also recounts deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein's agitated denials that firing Comey was his idea. The account is laced with sharp, amusing characterizations (special counsel Robert Mueller "is notâand I think he would admit this, probably while feigning slight resistance for comic effectâMr. Casual") and pleasingly idiosyncratic turns of phrase ("a clownfish-crammed saltwater aquarium of a situation"). McCabe comes off as levelheaded and principled; while his views about the "danger" posed by digital privacy protections may put off some readers, fans of police procedurals will love his descriptions of FBI culture, and critics of the current administration will find his denouncements satisfying. This is one of the better Trump-related tell-alls.

In a news-making memoir, former FBI head McCabe recounts his interactions with a corrupt government--our own--that uses "the power of public office to undermine legal authority and to denigrate law enforcement."Early on, the author reproduces his 1995 FBI employment application, which cites an arrest for purchasing alcohol with a fake ID and calls him an average student in law school, if one with "a strong interest in criminal law." That much is abundantly clear, as he recounts how he secured a post with the FBI, "the nemesis of criminals." It is also clear on which side McCabe's loyalties lie. After Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey in an "improvised and slapdash" travesty, he installed McCabe as acting director--and then fired him, too, just shy of his being able to retire with a pension. (A lawsuit is pending.) Throughout the book, newsworthy moments come fast and furious: Trump is frenetic and angry, and his style and signaling fuel "a strain of insanity in public dialogue that has been long in development." He is vindictive, insecure, and corrupt. More than once, he demanded to know who McCabe voted for. He governs by tweet and insult: As the author stalwartly notes of tweets directed to him, "it is meaningless to be called a liar by the most prolific liar I have ever encountered." More to the point, and now corroborative more than newsbreaking, is McCabe's matter-of-fact assurance that Russia interfered in the U.S. election in ways that put Trump in office. No matter the degree of collusion on the American side, Trump has consistently sided with Russia against the American intelligence community. "He thought that North Korea did not have the capability to launch [intercontinental] missiles," writes the author. "He said he knew this because Vladimir Putin had told him so."Evenhandedly, McCabe assures readers that the threat of the title will not prevail thanks to the rule of law, even if Trump is doing all he can to destroy it. Somber, urgent, necessary reading for anyone paying attention.

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