McCabe Talks Overstock CEO, Shootings on First Day at CNN

Former FBI Acting Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who is in the process of suing the FBI and Department of Justice after being fired by the Trump administration, spent the first morning at his new, controversial gig at CNN discussing mass shootings and the claims being made by ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne about the government, not his own case.  

About the shootings, McCabe told his new colleague Alisyn Camerota on "New Day," there is a "renewed awareness" not just at the FBI but on the local and state levels about the threats and online menacing activity that may have been considered as "unactionable exercises of First Amendment rights. "

But after the recent shootings in El Paso, Dayton, and a California festival, "you're seeing a much higher degree of sensitivity on the part of law enforcement to these statements which are now seen as predictors of potential mass shootings."

Meanwhile, McCabe also denied claims being made by Patrick Byrne, the now-ex-CEO of the online retailer Overstock.com, that the FBI forced him to have a romantic relationship with Russian spy Maria Butina as part of a "soft coup" it was waging against President Donald Trump.

"There are a number of things that he said that are not consistent with my experiences in the FBI," said McCabe."I never heard of Patrick Byrne until about two, three days ago when he revealed his relationship with Maria Butina. The allegation his relationship was discussed at the highest levels certainly never happened when I was there."

It is "possible," though, that Byrne volunteered information to the FBI about people he knows, said McCabe. 

"His references to things like a romantic relationship with a suspected Russian intelligence agent, that is simply not the sort of thing the FBI does," said McCabe."

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