Rod Rosenstein is leaving on his own terms
The deputy attorney general has watched over Russia inquiry amid political attacks.
In his role overseeing the Russia investigation that has ensnared some of President Trump’s former top advisors, the deputy attorney general was a frequent target of political attacks.
WASHINGTON — After President Trump picked Rod Rosenstein two years ago for the second-highest job at the Justice Department, his daughter asked whether his picture would appear in the newspaper.
“I said no,” Rosenstein later recalled. “I told her, ‘The deputy attorney general is a low-profile job. Nobody knows the deputy attorney general.’ ”
Instead, Rosenstein’s role overseeing the Russia investigation made him a household name, the target of political attacks and a key figure in a sprawling inquiry that has ensnared some of Trump’s top former aides.
Now his tenure is coming to an end. The White House announced late Tuesday that Trump will nominate Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey A. Rosen to replace Rosenstein as the dayto-day manager of a department with more than 100,000 employees and a $28-billion budget.
Rosenstein, a taciturn former prosecutor, was thrust into the limelight when Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey in May 2017. Then-Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions had recused himself from supervising Comey’s investigation of alleged ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Kremlin, leaving the job to his deputy.
Amid a public uproar after Comey’s ouster, Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel to report directly to him to ensure a degree of independence from the White House.
Mueller has since filed criminal charges against 34 people, including 25 Russians and several of Trump’s former top advisors, including his campaign chairman, his national security advisor and his personal lawyer.
Mueller’s probe is said to be wrapping up. His report will go to new Atty. Gen. William Barr, who was confirmed by the Senate and took office last Thursday. Rosenstein previously signaled that he would step down after Barr takes over. He is expected to stay until mid-March.
In a statement, Barr said Rosen’s “years of outstanding legal and management experience make him an excellent choice to succeed ... Rosenstein, who has served the Department of Justice over many years with dedication and distinction.”
Rosenstein had a rocky relationship with Trump. He defended Mueller even as the president repeatedly denounced the investigation as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax,” and once tweeted a picture depicting Rosenstein behind bars.
Still, Rosenstein kept a photo on his office wall of his family and Trump in the Oval Office for his swearingin ceremony. Rosenstein declined requests for an interview.
Rosen spent nearly 30 years at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, an international law firm with powerful connections in the White House.
Its alumni include Barr, Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, national security advisor John Bolton, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta.
Rosen joined the administration as general counsel for the White House Office of Management and Budget, and later served as general counsel at the Department of Transportation. A graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, Rosen has not worked as a prosecutor.
The Senate confirmed Rosen as undersecretary of transportation in May 2017 by a 56-42 vote. Only three Democrats, two of them the senators from his home state of Virginia, supported his nomination.
Rosenstein is one of the rare high-ranking Trump administration officials to leave on his own terms, a distinction all the more notable for his often fractious relationship with the president.
He was also one of the few administration officials who was previously a political appointee in a Democratic administration. He served as U.S. attorney in Maryland under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.
Rosenstein was expected to resign or be fired last fall after reports that he had discussed secretly recording his conversations with Trump, or trying to remove the president from office via the 25th Amendment in the days after Trump fired Comey. The amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to start the process of ousting a president whom they determine is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
Rosenstein denied the reports, but Andrew McCabe, who was fired last March as deputy FBI chief, repeated the allegations in recent days while promoting a book on his career. That provoked furious tweets from Trump and Republican calls for Senate hearings.
In response, the Justice Department said Rosenstein “again rejects Mr. McCabe’s recitation of events as inaccurate and factually incorrect.” The agency said that “based on his personal dealings with the president,” Rosenstein saw “no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment” and was not “in a position” to do so.
The president was not mollified. He tweeted Monday that Rosenstein and McCabe were “planning a very illegal act, and got caught.”
Rosenstein grew up outside Philadelphia, attended Harvard Law and clerked for a federal appeals court judge, then rose through the Justice Department’s ranks.
He worked on the Whitewater independent counsel investigation of real estate investments by President Clinton and his wife, Hillary — neither was charged in the case — and became a federal prosecutor in Baltimore.
Rosenstein was U.S. attorney in Maryland from 2005 until Trump nominated him as deputy attorney general in January 2017. The Senate confirmed him with overwhelming bipartisan support.
In May 2017, Trump asked Rosenstein and Sessions to lay out a case for firing Comey, who was then heading the Russia investigation.
In a long letter, Rosenstein criticized Comey for his handling of the FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of State. The White House initially cited the letter to explain Trump’s decision.
But Trump later told a TV interviewer that he decided to fire Comey over “this Russia thing,” raising questions about whether the president had sought to improperly shut down or influence a federal investigation. Trump warmly greeted two senior Russian diplomats in the Oval Office the day after he fired Comey, a meeting first disclosed by Russian government media.
Days later, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel, giving him broad authority to investigate whether Trump’s team conspired with Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election or committed other crimes. Prosecutors are also examining whether Trump obstructed justice.
Although it has uncovered a raft of other crimes, Mueller’s office has yet to file a case accusing Trump or his aides of conspiring with Moscow to release Democratic Party emails and target U.S. voters with false information, the initial focus of the investigation.