ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) In an interview on CBS '60 Minutes,' former FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe said President Trump told U.S. officials he 'believed Putin' after U.S. intelligence officers told the president that what Putin said about North Korea not having ballistic missiles that could reach the United States was not consistent with U.S. intelligence.

"Essentially the president said he did not believe that the North Koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the United States and he did not believe that because President Putin had told them they did not, "McCabe told '60 Minutes'.

"Intelligence officials in the briefing responded that that was not consistent with any of the intelligence our government possesses to which the president replied I don't care, I believe Putin, "McCabe said.

According to released excerpts of an interview with NPR's Morning Edition, to be aired early Monday, McCabe decried the "relentless attack" he said U.S. President Donald Trump has launched against the agency, "I think the FBI has been under a relentless attack in the last two years," said McCabe, who is promoting his new memoir, "The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terrorism and Trump." Trump's attack is one of the reasons he wrote his book, he said in a wide-ranging interview that covered everything from his own firing, the probe into Russia's alleged role in the 2016 presidential election, and FBI morale.

McCabe denied news reports that anyone in the Justice Department had made a serious effort to remove the president.

The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlines how a sitting president can be removed by the vice president and cabinet.

He also said in the interview that he believes his own firing just hours before his retirement "sends an unbelievably chilling message to the rest of the men and women of the FBI.

McCabe was dismissed from the FBI in March 2018, following a tumultuous relationship with Trump, after the President fired former FBI director James Comey over the investigation into the Trump el ection campaign's alleged connections with Russia.

Trump, who has frequently criticized Comey, McCabe and the Russia inquiry, on Thursday attacked McCabe on Twitter as a leaker and a "disgrace to the FBI."