Former FBI general counsel James Baker is currently under criminal investigation for leaking to the press. Tuesday he testified to the House Judiciary Committee that he had two conversations with Andrew McCabe about Rod Rosenstein in the fall of 2018. One concerned Rosenstein wearing a wire, and the other was about Rosenstein’s claim that he knew of two cabinet members that were willing to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Axios released a partial transcript.
Baker: To the best of my recollection [former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe] told me that the deputy attorney general said that he had at least two members of the Cabinet who were ready to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Q: And what happened after that during that conversation? Did Mr. McCabe tell you anything else?
Baker: I am sure he told me other things in that conversation, but it was in part both of those things were relayed to me with other information with respect to — what the DAG was going through at the time and how he was thinking about his involvement in the firing of Director Comey and how he was thinking about proceeding after that.
Q: Did people tell you that the DAG was upset?
Baker: Yes.
Q: Did they tell you that he was making jokes?
A: No.
Q: Did they tell you that --
A: This was not a joking sort of time. This was pretty dark.
That’s an understatement. It’s also an interesting insight into what is really going on in Washington, D.C., where career government officials realize that they’ve got a nut on their hands, and are trying to figure out what to do about it.