[ROSENSTEIN] There have been people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time
and I think they should understand by now, the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.
That’s Rod Rosenstein.
The former or current U.S. Deputy Attorney General.
Depending on when you’re watching this,
he has either resigned from the Trump administration,
he is thinking about resigning from the administration,
or he was fired from the Trump administration.
Who knows?
Maybe you know - again - depending on when you’re seeing this.
Rod Rosenstein was a member of the Bush, Clinton, Obama, and Trump administrations.
On the latter,
he was or is the current or previous balancing act between Mueller’s investigation
and Mike Love’s favorite president: Donald J. Trump.
Early reports suggested Rosenstein had verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly
before Trump had the chance to fire him,
[TRUMP] You’re fired.
but then more reports came which disputed that report.
Either way,
Rosenstein was or is overseeing Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
His job had already been subject to much contention for months,
but then a New York Times bombshell report dropped.
It claimed Rosenstein had discussed wearing a wire to secretly record damaging statements — or half-thoughts —
muttered by Trump.
In turn, Rosenstein - along with several colleagues -
was looking at ways to invoke the 25th amendment,
a constitutional provision to remove the president from office with a majority of the Cabinet.
It’s been clear for a while that the Mueller investigation wouldn’t stay on the same track with a Rosenstein departure.
[NADLER] If you were ordered today to fire Mr. Mueller, what would you do?
[ROSENSTEIN] So, I’ve explained previously, I would follow the regulation.
If there were a good cause, I would act, if there were no good cause I would not.
[NADLER] And you see no good cause so far?
[ROSENSTEIN] Correct.
The special counsel had to go through Rosenstein before making any decisions involving the Russia investigation.
Rosenstein’s temporary replacement, Noel Francisco,
could effectively refuse to be the middleman that the Deputy Attorney General once was
or currently is.
Either way, the guy in line for his job is worth noting.
Noel Francisco — as Mother Jones reported — is skeptical about Special Counsels.
Francisco could fire Mueller if he deemed it necessary.
So who was or is the seemingly neutral middleman between
pleasing Trump while at the same time allowing Mueller to work unbothered
as he indicts top members of the campaign?
Rod Jay Rosenstein was born in 1965 in the suburbs of Philadelphia
to a small business owner and a bookkeeper.
In 1986, he graduated from the same school Trump once did:
The Wharton School in Pennsylvania.
Rosenstein graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics.
Three years later, he earned his law degree from Harvard,
where he also was the editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Obama would go on to become the editor just a year after Rosenstein.
In 1990, Rosenstein joined the Justice Department during the George H.W. Bush administration
where he prosecuted public corruption cases with the DOJ’s criminal division which was led by Robert Mueller.
In the mid-90s, Rosenstein worked on a team of prosecutors,
investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton’s “Whitewater” business dealings in Arkansas.
As The Atlantic reports, “Rosenstein came out in exemplary form”.
the deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration told The Washington Post in 2011.
In 2005, George W. Bush nominated Rosenstein to become the U.S. Attorney for the district of Maryland.
He was unanimously confirmed and stayed on during the Obama administration.
And finally when the Trump administration took over 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
Rosenstein was the only remaining holdover from the Bush era.
He was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General in a Senate vote of 94-6.
Just two weeks into his new gig, the president fired FBI Director James Comey.
Rosenstein was tasked with writing a memo about Comey’s performance,
a memo the White House used to rationalize the firing.
According to a New York Times report, Rosenstein told colleagues the White House
had manipulated him into securing any reason to fire Comey.
Rosenstein feared this would be career damaging,
even if he was once described by The Washington Post as an even-keeled Jimmy Stewart character.
A defense lawyer said of Rosenstein,
“He is the poster child for the professional, competent, ethical and fair-minded prosecutor…”
Rosenstein, was or is the man in charge of choosing what information got or gets to Congress
regarding the Russia investigation.
With the level-headed Jimmy Stewart-esque AG potentially or definitely out,
Mueller’s bridge to Congress might cease to exist.
And mass protests have been promised for a while in the face of the looming departure
of this career official.
His possible firing has drawn comparisons with Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre for months -
when the former President fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox
and caused a constitutional crisis.
Either way, something is definitely, possibly, or not at all happening.
[REPORTER] Do you have confidence in Rod Rosenstein?
[TRUMP] Uh, what’s your next question please?