Trump has claimed his administration has defeated ISIS and beaten back the caliphate. But those aren't the same. The caliphate may be gone but ISIS remains. (Video: Meg Kelly, Joy Yi, Atthar Mirza/Photo: Atthar Mirza and Andrew Quilty/The Washington Post)
By Reis Thebault and
Meagan Flynn
President Trump suggested Monday night that former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe committed treason, making his case in a tweet that cited Fox News’s Sean Hannity, hours after lobbing similar claims at Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.
Trump sent the tweet during Hannity’s nightly show, in which the host assailed McCabe for claiming that he and Rosenstein discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from power.
Quoting Hannity, Trump wrote, “'The biggest abuse of power and corruption scandal in our history, and it’s much worse than we thought. Andrew McCabe (FBI) admitted to plotting a coup (government overthrow) when he was serving in the FBI, before he was fired for lying & leaking.'” @seanhannity @FoxNews Treason!"
Earlier on Monday, Trump claimed on Twitter that Rosenstein, a member of his administration, also engaged in “illegal and treasonous” activity with McCabe.
[Trump ‘treason’ in Helsinki? It doesn’t hold up.]
The former acting FBI director told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he and Rosenstein discussed “counting votes” among Cabinet members to see who would consider invoking the 25th Amendment, which removes a president from power in the event he is “unable to discharge” his duties. Rosenstein has denied McCabe’s claims. Trump, on Monday morning, said it looked like McCabe and Rosenstein were “planning a very illegal act.”
Some legal analysts on Monday pushed back at Trump’s allegations of treason, a crime that is punishable by death and is the only one defined in the Constitution. Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe called Trump’s understanding of treason “ignorant and constitutionally illiterate.” Maya Wiley, a legal analyst at MSNBC and NBC, pointed out the irony of Trump’s description of McCabe and Rosenstein’s activities as “treasonous” when the 25th Amendment is enshrined in the Constitution.