The Threat

As an ancom, I obviously have major disagreements with the author about many things, but I actually enjoyed this book. While McCabe is motivated by a degree of jingoism (like any person in a law-enforcement career), there was minimal jingoism in the book: McCabe wasn't trying to persuade me as much as matter-of-factly describe how the FBI works and the cases he's worked on, while also expressing a lot of frustration with how the Trump administration has tried to control the FBI. Everything McCabe relates regarding interactions with Trump and his cabinet reveals the Trump administration's calculated efforts to garner preferential treatment from the FBI.

This book got me thinking about ancom solutions to problems like organized crime, because at one point McCabe claims that the FBI's top-down methods are the only way to dismantle it. I definitely want to research how ancoms and other leftists approach that issue.

McCabe does discuss past investigations of civil rights leaders by the FBI as things that shouldn't have been done and assures the reader that the FBI now has rules to prevent such infiltration of nonviolent activist organizations, though it felt like an afterthought more than seriously engaging with criticism of the FBI. I don't find it convincing to be told that something doesn't happen because it's against the rules. That said, I got the impression that people who join the FBI have less power-hunger and more integrity than people who become cops. I don't think of the FBI as being run by terrifying boogeymen now that I've read what protocols FBI agents follow and how they work.

Overall, McCabe advances a very strong argument that Trump's actions toward the FBI are indicative of Trump's gross disregard for facts and reasoning that don't align with his preconceived notions. I recommend this book to anyone curious about how the FBI works.