Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to resign in protest over the White House citing him as the driving force behind Trump’s decision to fire James Comey.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to resign in protest over the White House citing him as the driving force behind President Donald Trump’s decision to fire now-former FBI Director James Comey, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Rosenstein is the author of a scathing memo that was written on Tuesday and which the White House used to justify Comey’s dismissal.
Rosenstein and his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, were told by Trump to compile a list of reasons for Comey’s removal, according to the Post.
If the report is true, it would contradict the administration’s narrative that Rosenstein independently wrote the memo and thus initiated the chain of events that resulted in Comey’s dismissal.
So he wrote a three-page rebuke of Comey’s conduct in which Rosenstein said the FBI director had usurped the attorney general’s authority last year when he announced that the FBI was closing its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email as secretary of state.
Rosenstein added that Comey’s behavior was ‘a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.’
Rosenstein, a veteran prosecutor, said the FBI was ‘unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a director who understands the gravity of the mistakes’ and promises not to repeat them.
Trump said he fired Comey in part based on the memo, titled ‘Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI.’
Rosenstein’s supposed influence on the president was one of the main talking points used by Trump surrogates.
‘The president took the advice of the deputy attorney general who oversees the director of the FBI, brought those concerns to the attorney general who brought them to the president, and they made a decision to remove him, ‘ Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told CNN this morning.
Conway repeatedly claimed during the CNN interview on Wednesday morning that Rosenstein acted alone.
His hand was not forced by the White House or Attorney General Jeff Sessions, she said, although that was later contradicted by reports which said that Rosenstein did, in fact, write the memo on the orders of Trump.
‘President Trump wants an FBI director who is impartial, who is not politicized and who has the confidence and the trust of people in the bureau, of Republicans and Democrats on capitol hill, of the attorney general, of the deputy attorney general who overseas the FBI director, and of the President of the United States, and he had lost that, ‘ Conway said.
Conway argued Wednesday that President Trump fired Comey at Rosenstein’s discretion as she was hammered on the network for a second time in 12 hours on the sudden dismissal that the White House and DOJ say was brought on by actions that the FBI director took six months ago.
‘You have to have confidence in the impartiality and the non-politicization of the FBI, of the bureau, and Mr. Rosenstein apparently concluded that’s not the case and put forth his recommendation to the president, ‘ Conway claimed.
Asked several times about the memo that Rosenstein put together on Comey and the White House distributed, Conway said, ‘You’d have to ask Rod Rosenstein.’
‘But one presumes that he wrote the report on his own. He’s fully capable of writing a report, isn’ t he Chris?’ she said to New Day Host Chris Cuomo.
Cuomo matter-of-factly asked if Rosenstein was urged to file the report by Sessions, a supporter of the president’s, and Conway curtly told him, ‘Well, now you’re insulting him, too.’
At one point in the interview Cuomo told the senior White House aide, ‘You’re creating an image that doesn’t reveal itself in fact’ and she denied it.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters late Tuesday night that it was ‘a DOJ decision’ to recommend that Comey be fired.
‘It was all him, ‘ Spicer said of Rosenstein.
Giving himself cover on second thought, Spicer backtracked, the Washington Post reported, and said: ‘I mean, I can’t, I guess I shouldn’t say that, thank you for the help on that one. No one from the White House. That was a DOJ decision.’
Spicer’s deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told MSNBC that the FBI probe into Russian meddling in the presidential election was ‘absolutely not’ why Comey was let go.
‘He was given a recommendation, and he made a decision and he made it quickly, ‘ Huckabee Sanders claimed.
Huckabee Sanders said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that she was ‘not aware’ that Rosenstein’s review of Comey was ‘requested’ by anyone.
‘I would imagine that that’s part of him coming on board and taking a position, ‘ she said on Wednesday’s program.
The deputy White House press secretary said it was her understanding that Rosenstein made an ‘independent decision’ to call for Comey’s replacement, but admitted that it was a question that would have to be answered ‘in the coming days.’
Vice President Mike Pence also cited the recommendations submitted by Sessions and Rosenstein as the reasons Trump made the decision to fire Comey, according to ABC News .
Sessions recused himself from any Trump-Russia investigation in March after the Justice Department acknowledged he had spoken twice with the Russian ambassador last year and had failed to disclose the contacts during his Senate confirmation process.
Rosenstein, who will now oversee the Russia investigation by virtue of Sessions’ recusal, was appointed top federal prosecutor in Maryland by President George W. Bush and remained in the post for the entire Obama administration.
That staying power, extraordinary for a position that routinely turns over with changes in the White House, lends weight to the reputation he’s cultivated as an apolitical law enforcement official.
