Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein submits his resignation letter after ‘landing the plane’

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein submitted his resignation letter on Monday, indicating that he will leave his job on May 11. Rod Rosenstein to resign effective May 11:

Rosenstein’s departure had been expected since the beginning of the year, but the date was repeatedly pushed back as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wound down his investigation and compiled a report detailing his findings.

Since his first days on the job, Rosenstein’s role in the Trump administration has been controversial, from the firing of then-FBI Director James B. Comey in May 2017 to the conclusion reached by Rosenstein and Attorney General William P. Barr that the president had not committed obstruction of justice.

In his resignation letter to Trump, Rosenstein praised the president for his personal charm and policy goals.

“As I submit my resignation effective on May 11, I am grateful to you for the opportunity to serve; for the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations; and for the goals you set in your inaugural address: patriotism, unity, safety, education, and prosperity, because ‘a nation exists to serve its citizens’,” Rosenstein wrote.

Wow, did Trump ghostwrite this letter for him? Rosenstein completely sold his soul at the end of his long career at the Department of Justice. He is no Elliot Richardson or William Ruckleshaus.

“Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told members of Congress that he knew President Trump planned to fire FBI Director James Comey before he wrote a [cover story] memo that the White House cited to justify the termination.” Rosenstein On Comey Memo: ‘I Wrote It. I Believe It. I Stand By It’.

This is the same guy who Suggested Secretly Recording Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment: “Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit.”

“Conservative allies of the president, led by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), pushed Rosenstein to turn over information on the Russia investigation” and last April drafted articles of impeachment against him. “Meadows and others also privately complained to Trump about his deputy attorney general.”

Last week we learned new facts about obstruction of justice not included in the Mueller Report, ‘I can land the plane’: How Rosenstein tried to mollify Trump, protect Mueller and save his job:

Rod J. Rosenstein, again, was in danger of losing his job. The New York Times had just reported that — in the heated days after James B. Comey was fired as FBI director — the deputy attorney general had suggested wearing a wire to surreptitiously record President Trump. Now Trump, traveling in New York, was on the phone, eager for an explanation.

Rosenstein — who, by one account, had gotten teary-eyed just before the call in a meeting with Trump’s chief of staff — sought to defuse the volatile situation and assure the president he was on his team, according to people familiar with matter. He criticized the Times report, published in late September, and blamed it on former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, whose recollections formed its basis. Then he talked about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and told the president he would make sure Trump was treated fairly, people familiar with the conversation said.

“I give the investigation credibility,” Rosenstein said, according to an administration official with knowledge of what was said during the call. “I can land the plane.”

This is the same phrase that Attorney General “Baghdad Bill” Barr used in his congressional testimony prior to the release of the Mueller Report refusing to answer questions from congressional committees. There must be a talking points memo at DOJ.

The episode illustrates the political tightrope Rosenstein has had to walk in his two years as the Justice Department’s second-in-command. To keep his job, the deputy attorney general has worked to mollify an often angry Trump, while at the same time protecting the special counsel’s investigation of the president and his campaign. Rosenstein’s actions have come under renewed scrutiny, as he has played a key role in releasing Mueller’s findings in a way even some of his supporters say has been overly favorable to Trump.

A person familiar with Rosenstein’s account said the deputy attorney general disputes that he was teary-eyed in the meeting before the call with Trump. “He was reacting appropriately given the circumstances, which was a discussion about his forced resignation,” the person said.

But Rosenstein — whose representatives were approached for comment for this report earlier in the week — acknowledged in a combative speechThursday night in New York that there were times during his tenure as deputy attorney general when he grew upset.

“One silly question that I get from reporters is, ‘Is it true that you got angry and emotional a few times over the past few years?’ Heck yes! Didn’t you?” Rosenstein said, deviating from his prepared script.

Obstruction of Justice

Trump ended the call with Rosenstein thinking he was “on the team after all,” one senior administration official said, adding that the president has been further swayed by Rosenstein’s deference in meetings and other settings.

On multiple occasions, according to people familiar with the matter, Rosenstein told Trump he was not a “target” of Mueller’s investigation — using law enforcement jargon that can refer to people about whom the Justice Department has gathered substantial evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Mueller’s report makes clear that investigators focused on Trump; his attorneys were informed he was a “subject,” a different bureaucratic term meaning his conduct was being investigated. And Mueller’s report details conduct that legal observers have said could constitute obstruction of justice.

Rosenstein telling Trump anything at all about a criminal investigation in which he was the subject was inappropriate and violated Department of Justice policy. It may have colored Trump’s responses to Special Counsel’s investigation (his refusal to be interviewed and his nonresponsive evasive nsers to written interrogatories).

Former Justice Department spokesperson Matt Miller explained to Ari Melber of MSNBC that Rosenstein was “weak” in his failure to stand up to Trump and Attorney General Barr.

In his speech Thursday, Rosenstein launched a blistering attack on the media, an offensive likely to hearten Trump.

“Some of the nonsense that passes for breaking news today would not be worth the paper it was printed on, if anybody bothered to print it,” he said.

He also criticized the Obama administration for not publicizing the “full story” about Russian hacking and social media influence operations and cited a quote from Trump to make a point about the rule of law.

Yeah, this was because of “The Enemy of The People,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as Rosenstein well knows. Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House:

In September, during a secret briefing for congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence, according to officials present.

In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russia’s role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals.

And they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as “the threat posed by unprecedented meddling by a foreign power in our election process.”

The Democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. Republicans, however, were divided, with at least two GOP lawmakers reluctant to accede to the White House requests.

According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.

Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscow’s hands.

At the end of Mueller’s probe, though, Rosenstein might have been able to avoid some punches, since the ultimate decisions would be up to Attorney General William P. Barr.

Instead, he leaned in.

In rare public comments in recent weeks, Rosenstein has lauded Barr to Time magazine and derided as “bizarre” allegations that Barr was trying to mislead the public about Mueller’s work by glossing over the most serious findings about Trump’s behavior, as Democrats have argued.

Rosenstein stood behind the attorney general when Barr held a news conference to assert that the president had not colluded with Russia and that there was not a prosecutable case against Trump for obstruction of justice. The deputy attorney general’s unmoving gaze (above) sparked speculation that he felt uncomfortable with what was happening; Barr, after all, was going further than Mueller had and repeatedly uttered one of the president’s preferred expressions — “no collusion.”

* * *

Rosenstein said in his speech Thursday: “Last week, the big topic of discussion was, ‘What were you thinking when you stood behind Bill Barr at that press conference, with a deadpan expression?’ The answer is I was thinking, ‘My job is to stand here with a deadpan expression.’ ”

“Can you imagine if I did anything other than stand there at the press conference?” he added. “Imagine the reaction and the commentary if I had smiled or grimaced.”

Defenders of the special counsel’s probe had long viewed Rosenstein as one of the last bastions guarding the investigation. But Barr’s comments, in their view, misrepresented Mueller’s full report and seemed designed to protect the president. And Rosenstein was at least willing to go along with them.

Former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade, who served with Rosenstein when he was a U.S. attorney in the Obama administration, said she considered Rosenstein “honorable.” But she said she was mystified that he would sign on to Barr’s decision that there was not a prosecutable obstruction case against Trump when Mueller pointedly would not say that.

“His name is included in the letter, and he stood by his side at the press conference, so somehow he got on board with that decision,” McQuade said. “It seems really strange to me.”

Others were more critical.

“I think Rod’s intentions were largely in the right place, but he was weak too many times when the country needed him to be strong,” said Matthew Miller, a Justice Department spokesman during the Obama administration. “He didn’t have to allow the attorney general to use his name in his letter and the press conference, but he has too often been willing to sacrifice his reputation to please people above him.”

‘I don’t want to go out with a tweet’

Rosenstein’s status in the eyes of the White House has been fluid, but it was perhaps never more tenuous than after the New York Times reported he had suggested wearing a wire to record Trump.

After the article was published, then-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly summoned Rosenstein to discuss it. The deputy attorney general would not address specific details of the article but told Kelly he was willing to step aside, two people familiar with the matter said. He talked about his long career at the Justice Department and his reputation, which he did not want Trump to tarnish, the people said.

“I can go. I’m ready to go. I can resign. But I don’t want to go out with a tweet,” the deputy attorney general said, according to one person’s account. Trump routinely makes significant personnel announcements via Twitter.

The person said Rosenstein left for another, regularly scheduled White House meeting but soon had a call with Trump. Even in the days that followed, his departure seemed so certain that the Justice Department lined up a succession plan. But Rosenstein ultimately met with Trump aboard Air Force One a few weeks later and remained at the Justice Department. He might do so almost up to the point his successor is confirmed.

Remember how Republicans made a five-alarm scandal out of President Bill Clinton meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch during the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server? Where was the five-alarm scandal outrage over this? Oh that’s right, IOKIYAR.

In the end, Rod Rosenstein may not have been the “hero” the media portrayed, but someone who was compromised and ensured that the Mueller Report would not be acted on by the Department of Justice. He was on “Team Trump.”

Trump has nominated Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Rosen to replace Rosenstein. Rosen still needs confirmation by the Senate — which could come next month.