WASHINGTON (WASHINGTON POST) - Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was fired from the FBI after becoming a frequent target of criticism from the President, is joining the growing list of former government officials to publish Trump-related books.
The Threat: How The FBI Protects America In The Age Of Terror And Trump will be published on Dec 4, Mr McCabe's publisher, St Martin's Press, announced on Tuesday (Sept 18).
The book will offer Mr McCabe's "candid account of his career and an impassioned defence of the FBI's agents, integrity and independence in protecting America and upholding our Constitution", the publisher said.
"I wrote this book because the President's attacks on me symbolise his destructive effect on the country as a whole," Mr McCabe said in a statement.
"He is undermining America's safety and security, and eroding public confidence in its institutions. His attacks on the most crucial institutions of government, and on the professionals who serve within them, should make every American stand up and take notice."
Mr McCabe, who spent 22 years in the FBI, has become something of a lightning rod in the political battles over the FBI and the probe of whether Mr Donald Trump's campaign interfered in the 2016 election.
A frequent punching bag for President Trump, Mr McCabe was fired from the bureau in March, just 26 hours before he could retire, after the inspector-general presented Justice Department leadership with allegations that Mr McCabe had authorised a disclosure to the media and then lied repeatedly to investigators about it.
Mr McCabe alleged that his termination was politically motivated, meant to discredit the bureau and the ongoing Russia probe.
But his problems would deepen. The inspector-general soon released his findings publicly and referred them to federal prosecutors to explore whether the FBI's former No. 2 official should be charged with a crime. The DC US attorney's office in recent months has been using a grand jury in that investigation - a sign of its seriousness.
Mr McCabe was once a key player in the Russia investigation, having taken over leadership of the bureau after Mr Trump fired FBI director James Comey. Like Mr Comey, who also authored a book after leaving government, Mr McCabe would be restricted from detailed ongoing aspects of the investigation. But also like Mr Comey, Mr McCabe had interesting interactions with Mr Trump that might be considered fair game.
The book announcement says Mr McCabe's job "put him in the room with the President, and many other leaders at the highest levels of this administration".
"A series of troubling, contradictory, and often bizarre conversations with these figures led McCabe to a conclusion of vital interest to every American citizen: the actions of this President and his administration undermine the FBI and the entire intelligence community; they pose a clear and present danger to the country," the announcement said.
The Washington Post has previously reported that Mr Trump asked Mr McCabe how he voted during an interaction in the Oval Office, and vented about Mr McCabe's wife, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for state office in Virginia and accepted several hundred thousand dollars in donations from a political action committee controlled by a friend of Mrs Hillary Clinton.
