Donald Trump is being accused of waging a “relentless attack” on the FBI since taking office as the fallout from his decision to declare a national emergency to secure border wall funding continues.
The remark comes from former deputy director of the bureau Andrew McCabe - dismissed by ex-attorney general Jeff Sessions in March 2018 after being accused of leaking information to the media - in an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition to promote his new insider account of the bureau, The Threat.
President Trump has already responded angrily on Twitter to Mr McCabe's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday, in which the latter said he had discussed removing the president under the 25th Amendment and ordered an investigation into whether ex-director James Comey was removed in May 2017 to impede the Russian election hacking investigation.
Mr McCabe also revealed that when the president told Mr Rosenstein to put in writing his concerns with former FBI Director James Comey — a document the White House initially held up as justification for his firing — the president explicitly asked the Justice Department official to reference Russia in the memo. Mr Rosenstein did not want to, Mr McCabe said, and the memo that was made public upon Mr Comey’s dismissal did not mention Russia and focused instead on Mr Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email server investigation.
“He explained to the president that he did not need Russia in his memo,” Mr McCabe said. “And the president responded, “I understand that, I am asking you to put Russia in the memo anyway.”
The news arrived as California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced he was suing Mr Trump over his emergency declaration to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border, with as many as twelve states joining the lawsuit.
California has repeatedly challenged Trump in court. Mr Becerra has filed at least 45 lawsuits against the administration.
Mr Trump declared the emergency last week to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets.
The announcement was immediately met with resistance from members of Congress.
Additional reporting by AP. Read The Independent's live coverage on the White House turmoil on Monday below.
Happy Presidents' Day!
Welcome to The Independent's coverage of another busy day in Trump's America.
President Trump finds himself facing further criticism this morning from former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
The official - fired by ex-attorney-general Jeff Sessions in March 2018 over a Justice Department report accusing him of leaking information to the media and "lacking candour" about it - is heard in pre-released extracts from an interview with NPR's Morning Edition saying: "I think the FBI has been under a relentless attack in the last two years."
Mr McCabe is promoting a new book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terrorism and Trump, addressing his sacking 26 hours before his scheduled retirement, the alleged Russian election hacking being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and the current state of morale within the bureau.
Mr McCabe appeared on 60 Minutes on CBS on Sunday and his suggestion that he and senior Justice Department officials discussed the possibility of removing President Trump via the 25th Amendment to the Constitution caused a sensation.
Here, he appears to row back on the significance of the revelation: "At no time did I ever perceive that there was a legitimate effort underway by Rod [Rosenstein, deputy attorney-general] or anybody else to remove the president under the 25th Amendment or in any other way."
The 25th Amendment outlines how a sitting president can be removed by the vice-president and cabinet.
He also tells NPR that he believes his own firing "sends an unbelievably chilling message to the rest of the men and women of the FBI".
"It sends a message that if you stand up for what you think is right, and you do the right thing, and you honour your obligations to this organisation and the Constitution, that you too could be personally targeted and lose those things that you've been building towards your whole career."
Mr Trump has unsurprisingly hit back against Mr McCabe over the CBS and NPR appearances, the pair suffering a tumultuous relationship in the aftermath of the president's sacking of FBI director James Comey in May 2017.
In the Morning Edition interview, set to be aired in full on Monday, Mr McCabe said he has an ongoing civil lawsuit against the Justice Department over the circumstances of his firing.
He said he believes the report by the FBI's Office of Inspector General (OIG) used as the basis for his dismissal was biased against him.
He pointed to the personal attacks Trump has launched against himself on Twitter and said of the OIG, "I don't believe they were independent or fair."
Meanwhile, activists are calling for nationwide protests on Presidents' Day - held on the third Monday of every February in honour of George Washington's birthday - to demonstrate against President Trump's declaration of a national emergency on Friday to secure funding for his US-Mexico border wall.
The organisers of the demonstrations, the non-profit advocacy group MoveOn.org, said they would be held throughout the day in towns and cities including Washington, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
"Come and voice your outrage," it says on its website, set up to help protesters find their nearest event. The group called Mr Trump's declaration an abuse of power and usurpation of Congress.
Mr Trump invoked the emergency powers under the National Emergencies Act - introduced under Gerald Ford in 1976 with no definition of what constitutes a crisis in place - after Congress declined to fulfill his request for $5.7bn (£4.4bn) to help build the wall that was his signature 2016 campaign promise.
Democrats have vowed to challenge it as a violation of the US Constitution. Mr Trump says a wall is needed to curb illegal immigrants and illicit drugs coming across the border.
A remark by Andrew McCabe to Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes appeared to indicate the removal of James Comey had so concerned the Justice Department that its senior officials had discussed the possibility of engineering President Trump's removal under the 25th Amendment.
Rod Rosenstein, for his part, has denied the claim.
Republican senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, has since described the rumoured "bureaucratic coup" as "stunning" and pledged a congressional investigation.
“I promise your viewers the following; that we will have a hearing about who’s telling the truth, what actually happened,” he told CBS.
Here's Tim Wyatt's report.
Lindsey Graham vows to investigate 'bureaucratic coup' trying to oust Trump
'If it happened we need to clear it up. The FBI has gotten off track'Here's the full report on the President's response to Andrew McCabe, courtesy of Samuel Osborne.
Trump accuses his own deputy attorney general of 'planning illegal act' in early morning Twitter rant
Donald Trump has accused his own deputy attorney general of breaking the law in a series of early morning tweets railing against current and former law enforcement officialsSince the president declared the southern border "crisis" a national emergency from the White House Rose Garden on Friday, the Democrats have been busy preparing legal challenges to block his redirection of federal funds to pay for the border wall.
Trump faces multiple lawsuits to stop national emergency for border wall funds
Critics argue president's declaration will deprive other projects of necessary fundsIn other Trump news this morning, actor Alec Baldwin has said the president's criticism of his impersonation of him on NBC's Saturday Night Live has left him fearing for his safety.
The president lashed out again after this weekend's instalment:
...To which Baldwin responded.
Here's Clarisse Loughrey.
Alec Baldwin says Trump's attacks on Saturday Night Live are 'a threat to my safety'
On Sunday, the president launched into an angry Twitter rant after Baldwin reprised his Trump impersonation on the showThe president is currently watching his favourite breakfast show, Fox and Friends, which is being as measured as ever.
Oh this is sweet.
Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe has refused to deny claims his country nominated US president Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize "because the White House asked them to".
Mr Trump said on Friday that he had received a “beautiful copy” of a letter sent by Shinzo Abe to the Nobel committee.
The comment sparked criticism in Japan and Mr Abe was questioned about whether he had done so in parliament, refusing to give an answer.
Chiara Giordano has more.
Japan nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize 'after the White House asked them to'
US president claims he received 'beautiful copy' of letter Japanese prime minister sent to Nobel committeeSelf-styled "guerrilla marketer" Dion Cini, 49, has meanwhile been kicked out of Disneyland for unfurling a Trump 2020 banner in violation of the children's theme park's rules.
Man kicked out of Disneyland for unfurling a pro-Trump banner
Dion Cini, 49, has described his demonstration as 'guerrilla marketing'President Trump's demand that European countries take back their citizens fighting in Syria has received a mixed reaction as nations ponder how to bring home-grown Isis extremists to trial.
Isis prisoners could be exposed to torture or the death penalty if they remain in jail in Syria or Iraq and the EU opposes the death penalty.
But few European countries have embassies in Syria or Iraq, let alone extradition treaties to get their citizens back.
But few European countries have embassies in Syria or Iraq, let alone extradition treaties to get their citizens back.
Proving who is who and gathering solid evidence against suspects that would stand up in European courts is virtually impossible.
Then there is the question of what to do with the wives and children of European jihadis.
"It is certainly not as easy as they think in America," German foreign minister Heiko Maas told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
French officials are concerned because in 2015 and 2016, an Isis cell of French and Belgian fighters crossed from Syria into Turkey, eventually launching deadly attacks on Paris and Brussels.
French officials are concerned because in 2015 and 2016, an Isis cell of French and Belgian fighters crossed from Syria into Turkey, eventually launching deadly attacks on Paris and Brussels.
Britain refuses to take back citizens who joined Isis and has stripped them of their citizenship while Belgium has said previously that it would not make any great effort to secure the release of 12 citizens imprisoned in Syria and two in Iraq.
A little more from Andrew McCabe's Morning Edition interview on US relations with Russia:
"I don't know that we have ever seen in all of history an example of the number, the volume and the significance of the contacts between people in and around the president, his campaign, with our most serious, our existential international enemy: the government of Russia. That's just remarkable to me," he says.
Mr McCabe said he found the evidence for collusion put forward so far by Robert Mueller "incredibly persuasive".
According to NPR, Mr McCabe's new book The Threat includes an account of an FBI briefing with President Trump that convinced the author his boss had "gone completely off the rails from the very beginning".
Discussing possible Russian use of diplomatic compounds on US soil to gather intelligence on American spy agencies, Mr Trump reportedly went off on a "diatribe" about North Korea, saying he believed the Asian state had not launched missiles because Russian president Vladimir Putin had assured him "it was all a hoax".
"How do we impart wisdom and knowledge and the best of our intelligence assessments to someone who chooses to believe our adversaries over our intelligence professionals?" Mr McCabe rather pointedly asks.
In the NPR interview, Andrew McCabe addresses the panicked atmosphere in the Justice Department in spring 2017 and his book's revelation that deputy attorney-general Rod Rosenstein offered to wear a recording device in the White House to collect evidence about Donald Trump's intention to dismiss James Comey.
"I was taken aback by the offer. I told him that I would consider it, I would discuss it with the investigative team, and I'd let him know. I did talk to my attorneys back at FBI headquarters about it."
Here's The Independent's Kim Sengupta on how the Trump administration is driving a wedge between the US and Europe.
Opinion: The Trump administration is to blame for the growing fracture between the US and Europe
Mike Pence’s criticism of Europe’s support for the nuclear deal with Iran was met with mockery during the Munich security conference, while Angela Merkel’s defence of Europe drew widespread praise.The White House's response to Andrew McCabe's media appearances over the weekend has been to attack his character, a tactic with which the below is pretty representative.
A man with a banner and an American flag has climbed a construction crane near a Florida campus where President Trump is scheduled to speak today.
The Miami Herald reports the man spent about two hours atop the crane at the northern edge of the Florida International University campus in the Miami suburb of Sweetwater.
It was unclear what was written in black on the man's white banner. Only the words "Mr Presidente" were visible as the rest of the banner twisted in the wind.
Police had blocked off streets around the campus and warned traffic would be interrupted by Mr Trump's visit.
The president is expected to speak about the political turmoil in Venezuela, backing self-declared president Juan Guaido and urging the country's military to side with him.
The campus is just south of Doral, a city home to the largest concentration of Venezuelans in the US.
In other news, the president has appointed the son-in-law of new attorney-general William Barr, Tyler McGaughey, to serve as a White House legal adviser, provoking fresh conflict-of-interest concerns.
Here's Chris Riotta.
Trump appoints son-in-law of new attorney general as legal adviser
Former ethics official says new post 'raises further questions' about William Barr’s 'independence'Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
