Rod Rosenstein
October 3, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Judicial Watch has pried loose a small quantity of Rod Rosenstein’s emails (suspiciously small) from the Department of Justice. They cover a few critical days in May 2017 when Rosenstein was in the process of appointing Bob Mueller as Special Counsel. I am on an airplane (headed for another White House meeting tomorrow) and can’t comment on the emails in detail, but if you read through them, a few impressions
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April 29, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein resigned today. It has been clear for some time that Rosenstein would depart. However, he waited, reportedly at the urging of Attorney General Barr, for the Mueller report to be filed and summarized before resigning. Rosenstein is a respected figure, but I think he made a major mistake when he appointed a special counsel for the Russia investigation. The investigation should have been handled by
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February 26, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said yesterday that the Justice Department should not reveal information about people it does not charge with a crime. The Washington Post views this as “an ominous sign for those hoping the department will soon disclose the closely held details of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of President Trump and his campaign.” In reality, Rosenstein is unlikely to have any say about what the Justice
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February 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Lindsey Graham says the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, will investigate Andrew McCabe’s claim that Rod Rosenstein raised the possibility of ousting President Trump via the 25th Amendment. Graham called McCabe’s statement “beyond stunning.” If true, McCabe’s statement is stunning. But in order to justify an investigation, there should be some reason to believe the statement is true. McCabe is a liar. The DOJ’s inspector general so concluded,
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October 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Rod Rosenstein is under fire for suggesting — maybe seriously, maybe not — that President Trump be wiretapped. Regardless of whether the suggestion was made seriously, Trump should be outraged by it. And he is outraged. . .at Jeff Sessions. Fox News reports: President Trump appeared to blame Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the latest controversy surrounding Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Sunday, saying that Sessions had “hired” Rosenstein to
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October 11, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
According to the Washington Post, at a meeting with special counsel Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe feuded over the issue of recusal from the Russia investigation. McCabe argued that Rosenstein should step aside because of his involvement in the firing of James Comey — an issue that Mueller was almost certain to investigate (and reportedly has been investigating). Rosenstein argued that McCabe should bow out because of his
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October 10, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Rod Rosenstein has acknowledged that he suggested using a wiretap to record President Trump’s communications. Rosenstein claims, however, that he wasn’t serious about this proposal. He says he made it sarcastically. But according to the Washington Post, James Baker, then the FBI’s top lawyer, has testified that Rosenstein’s suggestion was presented to him by FBI officials who heard it as a serious proposal. Baker wasn’t present when Rosenstein suggested wiretapping
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September 10, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In a letter to Rod Rosenstein, Rep. Mark Meadows says that text messages and documents obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee show that senior members of the FBI and Department of Justice led a coordinated effort to leak information to the press regarding alleged collusion with Russia. The purpose was to damage the Trump administration. The text of Meadows’ letter is here. He writes: As you may
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September 9, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Andrew McCarthy’s weekly NR column poses this pointed question: “For precisely what federal crimes is the president of the United States under investigation by a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department?” He observes: “It is intolerable that, after more than two years of digging — the 16-month Mueller probe having been preceded by the blatantly suspect labors of the Obama Justice Department and FBI — we still do not
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July 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t think any of us has commented on the articles of impeachment filed against Rod Rosenstein by a small number of conservative House Republicans. My comment is that there is no case for impeaching Rosenstein. I’ll give my reasons in a moment. I assume the articles were filed in order to focus attention on the fact that the Department of Justice hasn’t produced documents requested by the House at
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July 13, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein has just concluded a press conference announcing the grand jury indictment obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller charging 12 Russian military officers with hacking into the Democratic National Committee to sabotage the 2016 presidential election. I have embedded a copy of the indictment below. Poltico reports on the press conference and indictment here. In his press conference Rosenstein summarized the charges to the effect that the
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June 29, 2018 — John Hinderaker
On Tuesday, Judge T.S. Ellis of the Eastern District of Virginia denied Paul Manafort’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges that have been brought against him by special counsel Robert Mueller. Simply put, Manafort’s argument was that the charges against him–essentially, tax evasion with regard to millions of dollars he received from the Ukraine government–long preceded, and had nothing to do with, the supposed subject of Mueller’s investigation, alleged collusion
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June 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
More than any federal agency or department I’ve worked for, with, or against, the Justice Department resembles a cult. Its employees think they are special. They feel intense hostility towards the Department’s adversaries. They are fiercely loyal to the Department and compulsively committed to its ways of doing things. Outsiders are viewed with condescension and suspicion, if not contempt. Obviously, many DOJ employees do not buy fully into the cult,
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