President Donald Trump, after firing FBI Director James Comey in May, asked the acting director who he voted for in the 2016 presidential election, according to a Washington Post report published Tuesday.
During the get-to-know-you-meeting in the Oval Office with acting director Andrew McCabe, Trump questioned which way he voted, the Washington Post reported, citing U.S. officials who preferred to remain anonymous. McCabe, who has had substantial ties to Democrats, said he did not cast a vote for president in the 2016 elections.
McCabe had been with the bureau for more than 20 years and served as FBI deputy director for over a year when Comey was fired. He has since come under fire from Trump, once in an angry tweet where he suggested the Russia probe was politically motivated by Democrats who are still upset over losing the election.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/944665687292817415
A former U.S. official said McCabe found the conversation with Trump over his voting choices to be "disturbing," and other FBI officials familiar with the exchange said they were frustrated that a civil servant would be asked how he voted in the presidential election by the president himself.
Both the White House and FBI declined to comment to the Post.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on CNN Wednesday that Trump’s question may only have been made in an attempt to get to know McCabe better, the Washington Examiner reported.
"It’s just a conversation," McDaniel said. "I don’t think it intends all these terrible things that people are trying to put forward."
"I ask people who they vote for sometimes," she continued. "I think it’s just trying to get to know somebody."
A White House official said Trump was concerned about McCabe’s politics but agreed to allow him to become the acting director because "there were no immediate better choices," according to the Post. McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, received almost $500,000 in donations from a political action committee controlled by then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffee (D.). The Virginia Democrat is a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and chaired Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 run for president.
At the time of the donations, Andrew McCabe was assistant director of the FBI’s Washington field office, and he recused himself from investigations involving Virginia political figures. A lawyer by training who specialized in counterterrorism work, McCabe became Comey’s deputy in February 2016, by which time the election his wife lost had been over for three months.
But critics have questioned why he went on to oversee two critical cases related to Clinton: a probe into her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and an investigation into donations made to the Clinton Foundation. At the end of October 2016, as the presidential election neared and the FBI faced intense public scrutiny over McCabe’s role, he recused himself from the Clinton probes.
Trump had a second meeting with McCabe in the Oval Office, where he interviewed him for the position of FBI director, but it was brief as White House officials indicate Trump had no intention of giving McCabe the job. The job ultimately went to Christopher Wray.
The Justice Department’s inspector general is currently investigating McCabe's conduct, and a report is expected in the spring.
The new questions over Trump's relationship with McCabe come in the wake of a Monday report from Axios that claimed Wray threatened to resign after he was pressured by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to remove McCabe from the deputy director post, CNN reported.
The White House denied on Monday that Wray did anything of the sort, and praised the work the director has done at the FBI since taking over from Comey. White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah issued a statement praising Wray while attacking other senior FBI officials it views as partisan.
"The President has enormous respect for the thousands of rank-and-file F.B.I. agents who make up the world's most professional and talented law enforcement agency," Shah said.
"He believes politically motivated senior leaders, including former Director (James) Comey and others he empowered, have tainted the agency's reputation for unbiased pursuit of justice. The President appointed Chris Wray because he is a man of true character and integrity, and the right choice to clean up the misconduct at the highest levels of the F.B.I. and give the rank and file confidence in their leadership," Shah said.