WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asked acting FBI director Andrew McCabe who he voted for in the 2016 election in an introductory Oval Office meeting, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing several current and former US officials.
The meeting happened in May, not long after Trump fired former FBI director James Comey, according to the Post.
The officials said McCabe responded by telling the President that he didn’t vote.
Trump also expressed frustration because McCabe’s wife had received “several hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations” when she ran for a Virginia state Senate seat in 2015 from a group with ties to Hillary Clinton, the officials said, according to The Washington Post’s report.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment, and the FBI declined to comment.
McCabe thought the exchange was “disturbing,” The Post reported one official as saying. Additionally, the conversation is of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller, according to one official cited in The Washington Post report.
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Mueller is investigating any potential connection between the Trump campaign and Russia, and his is one of several ongoing investigations looking into any collusion.
McCabe has come under public criticism by Trump and his allies in recent weeks over the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and his connections to anti-Trump messages sent between two FBI employees during the campaign.
CNN previously reported that McCabe, who is eligible to retire in March, told other senior FBI officials months ago that he planned to retire in the near future. Under FBI rules governing accumulated leave, he may be able to exit earlier.
Trump has publicly called on McCabe to step down and tweeted repeated attacks on the FBI official.
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