THE THREAT

In a news-making memoir, former FBI
head McCabe recounts his interactions with a corrupt government—our own—that
uses “the power of public office to undermine legal authority and to denigrate
law enforcement.”

Early on, the author reproduces his
1995 FBI employment application, which cites an arrest for purchasing alcohol
with a fake ID and calls him an average student in law school, if one with “a
strong interest in criminal law.” That much is abundantly clear, as he recounts
how he secured a post with the FBI, “the nemesis of criminals.” It is also
clear on which side McCabe’s loyalties lie. After Donald Trump fired FBI
director James Comey in an “improvised and slapdash” travesty, he installed
McCabe as acting director—and then fired him, too, just shy of his being able
to retire with a pension. (A lawsuit is pending.) Throughout the book, newsworthy
moments come fast and furious: Trump is frenetic and angry, and his style and
signaling fuel “a strain of insanity in public dialogue that has been long in
development.” He is vindictive, insecure, and corrupt. More than once, he
demanded to know who McCabe voted for. He governs by tweet and insult: As the
author stalwartly notes of tweets directed to him, “it is meaningless to be
called a liar by the most prolific liar I have ever encountered.” More to the
point, and now corroborative more than newsbreaking, is McCabe’s matter-of-fact
assurance that Russia interfered in the U.S. election in ways that put Trump in
office. No matter the degree of collusion on the American side, Trump has consistently
sided with Russia against the American intelligence community. “He thought that
North Korea did not have the capability to launch [intercontinental] missiles,”
writes the author. “He said he knew this because Vladimir Putin had told him
so.”

Evenhandedly, McCabe assures
readers that the threat of the title will not prevail thanks to the rule of
law, even if Trump is doing all he can to destroy it. Somber, urgent, necessary
reading for anyone paying attention.