By Dustin Rowles | Politics | May 10, 2017 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | May 10, 2017 |
Donald Trump fired James Comey at 5:41 p.m. last night, and like many of you, by 6:00, I was investigating the hell out of Rod J. Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General who wrote the memo that Trump used to justify the firing of James Comey. The first thing I saw was his picture:
Oh sh*t, I thought: He looks like one of the parents of the First Generation kids in Wayward Pines, the kind of guy who would do anything that Toby Jones/Jeff Sessions asked of him.
But I looked deeper into the guy, and to be honest, like most career DOJs, he doesn’t seem so bad. He may be a Republican appointee, but so was Sally Yates, and like Yates, he was kept on in the Obama administration. Bush tried to get him nominated to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, but Dems blocked it back when we were blocking everyone. He seems like a guy who does his job.
So, why did he fire Comey? And will he appoint a special prosecutor?
Well, maybe he didn’t fire Comey, and maybe he will appoint a special prosecutor.
This thread is particularly encouraging. It comes from Eric Columbus. He worked at the Department of Homeland Security under Obama, and before that, he was senior counsel to the Deputy Attorney General, i.e., the position that Rosenstein now holds. As someone deep inside of the DOJ, I suspect he knows of what he speaks.
THREAD: The key player here is Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Rosenstein. I spent 5 yrs in the DAG’s office under Obama. Please indulge me.
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Rosenstein is a rare breed - a Bush political appointee who Obama kept on for eight years, as U.S. Attorney for Maryland. (2/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Rosenstein was particularly beloved by then-Senator Barbara Mikulski, at whose recommendation Obama kept him. (3/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Dems praised Rosenstein at his DAG confirmation hearing, he was confirmed 94-6, and he took office on April 25 (4/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
It's no coincidence that the Comey firing took place now. Trump laundered it through Rosenstein to boost its legitimacy. (5/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Rosenstein's letter to Sessions blasts Comey's handling of Clinton case in terms that could have been written by a Clinton staffer. (6/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Rosenstein's letter to Sessions blasts Comey's handling of Clinton case in terms that could have been written by a Clinton staffer. (6/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
But one thing Rosenstein's letter doesn't do — and it took me a second read to note this — is expressly recommend Comey be fired. (7/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Sure, it comes very, very close to doing so. The title is "Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI" and it has language like this: (8/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
"FBI is unlikely 2 regain public/congressional trust until has Director who understands gravity of mistakes & pledges never 2 repeat."(9/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
But it never expressly recommends that POTUS fire Comey. Is this deliberate? Who knows. (10/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Quite possibly Rosenstein, like most of us, thought Comey screwed up but didn't want him fired with Russia investigation pending. (11/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Yet Sessions wanted a memo on Comey's sins, and Rosenstein felt he had to oblige his boss … (12/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
… as long as he didn't have to expressly say something he didn't believe, i.e. that Comey should be fired now. (13/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
I suspect that the letter's final paragraph — whose sentences fit together awkwardly — was highly negotiated. (14/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Why does any of this matter? Sessions is recused from Russia, so it falls to Rosenstein to decide whether to appoint special counsel.(15/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Rosenstein is no dummy. He knows that no one buys that Trump/Sessions wanted to fire Comey for actions they praised at the time! (16/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
And he cares about DOJ's reputation. He's not a hack — he's been at DOJ for 27 years, under five different presidents. (17/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Note his language about the FBI — he worries that it now lacks "public and congressional trust." Same could be said now about DOJ. (18/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Appointing a special counsel would help DOJ regain that trust — both with the public and with Congress. (19/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Appointing a special counsel would help DOJ regain that trust — both with the public and with Congress. (19/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Sure, he's not likely to get much pushback from this Congress, but if Dems win House or Senate in 2018, all hell could break loose. (20/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Comey did the wrong thing on 10/28 because he feared hell from Congress. Rosenstein could do the right thing for the same reason! (21/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
I think he'll do it. Would it shock me if he didn't? No, because after 2015, as you may have noticed, shock ceased to be a thing. (22/22)
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 10, 2017
Read Rosenstien’s letter again, and this all seems to track, for whatever that is worth. If he does hire a special prosecutor, though, don’t be surprised if Trump fires him, too.