Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Rosenstein And McCabe’s Falling Out Began With Spat In Mueller Meeting

Tensions were high between Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former FBI director Andrew McCabe back in 2017, around the time Robert Mueller was tapped to investigate Russia’s possible involvement in the 2016 election, the Washington Post reported.

Both men wanted the other to back away from investigation, people familiar with the situation said. They duked it out in an intimate meeting with Mueller.

That came days after a meeting where Rosenstein reportedly suggested secretly recording President Trump. McCabe, who was present and wrote a memo, also noted that Rosenstein wanted to rally Cabinet members to remove the president from office.

Rosenstein denied the allegations, and his supporters claim the recording comment wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, according to the Post.

Days later, Rosenstein and Mueller invited McCabe to discuss the acting director leaving the investigation. However, McCabe thought it was Rosenstein who should remove himself.

They each came in ready with arguments: Rosenstein claimed McCabe showed political bias for once wearing a T-shirt supporting his wife’s campaign for a state Senate seat in Virginia while McCabe said that because Rosenstein penned the memo that eventually led to James Comey’s termination as FBI director, he wasn’t fit to be part of the new investigation.

Neither man conceded the point, and according to the Washington Post, their relationship continued to sour.

McCabe was fired in March, one day before he was set to retire. He was later accused of misleading FBI investigators.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.