Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be invited to an all-senators briefing next week to discuss his role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be invited to an all-senators briefing next week to discuss his role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed Thursday that he is working on scheduling the meeting.
“Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has been meeting with members and has made himself available to the leadership as well, ” said Don Stewart, the Kentucky Republican’s spokesman. “So the Leader is working on scheduling a briefing for members from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Once we have more information we’ ll be sure to make an announcement.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who had been calling for all-senator briefings with Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said the invitation is “a good first step” and he hopes Rosenstein will accept. He said he declined Rosenstein’s request for a one-on-one meeting on Thursday because he wanted all members to have the opportunity to question him.
“My caucus still believes that Attorney General Sessions must be made available to the Senate in a similar capacity, given his reported role in firing Director Comey and helping to select his replacement, ” Schumer said in prepared remarks. “Considering his recusal from the Russia investigation, his close involvement in these events warrants the Senate’s questioning as well.”
Democrats have been calling on Rosenstein to start answering questions about his role in the firing, saying his “apolitical” reputation is on the line.
Schumer asked Rosenstein more than two dozen questions in a letter Thursday, including whether Comey had asked last week for additional resources for the ongoing counterintelligence investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Both Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommended Comey’s dismissal to President Trump, though Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt on Thursday he would have fired Comey regardless.
Schumer wrote that there is wide skepticism that the justifications Rosenstein laid out in a memo to Sessions are the “real basis” for Trump’s decision. He asked whether Trump directed Rosenstein to write the memo, citing Comey’s handling of the investigation into former secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. He requested answers by May 15.
“This skepticism, and indeed all of the circumstances surrounding Director Comey’s dismissal just as he was leading an investigation into the Trump administration’s and Trump campaign’s ties with Russia and President Putin’s interference with the 2016 election, have shaken public confidence in the Department, in your leadership, and in the administration of law and justice in our country, ” Schumer wrote. “In order to restore the nation’s faith in you personally and in our law enforcement system more broadly, the American people must understand more about your role in the president’s firing of Director Comey.”
Schumer’s letter foreshadows the grilling Rosenstein would get if he appears at an all-senators briefing.
Rosenstein was in the Capitol on Thursday for a closed-door meeting with Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N. C., and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia.
Democratic leaders on the Senate Appropriations Committee also sought information Thursday from Rosenstein on whether Comey requested additional resources before Trump fired him.
“The American people have a right to know, for the sake of our national security and sovereignty, whether and to what extent Russia interfered in the 2016 Presidential election, ” wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee’s highest-ranking Democrat, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee overseeing Justice Department spending. “Given the importance of this investigation, the FBI and the DOJ should spare no expense in getting to the truth.”
Democrats and even some Republicans have questioned Trump’s motives in firing Comey, but Republican leaders defended his decision.
While Democrats worked to keep the issue in the spotlight Thursday, they didn’ t repeat Wednesday’s tactics to slow Senate business so that acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe could testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in Comey’s place. Comey has been invited to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
Schumer, a Senate floor speech early Thursday, continued to demand the appointment of a special prosecutor by a non-political appointee of the Justice Department. He called for Comey to testify before Congress. And he said the meetings with Sessions and Rosenstein should be separate and may be classified.
Schumer noted 94 senators voted last month for Rosenstein’s confirmation, but he said many now question their belief in his “reputation for integrity” and assurances that he would be “an independent force” inside the department.
“He owes it to the U. S. Senate, which confirmed him, to provide some answers, ” Schumer said.
