He mad
It turns out Rosenstein was not happy about that whole fire-Comey memo setup.
In the days after the F.B.I. director James B. Comey was fired last year, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, repeatedly expressed anger about how the White House used him to rationalize the firing, saying the experience damaged his reputation, according to four people familiar with his outbursts.
In public, Mr. Rosenstein has shown no hint that he had second thoughts about his role — writing a memo about Mr. Comey’s performance that the White House used to justify firing him. “I wrote it. I believe it. I stand by it,” Mr. Rosenstein said to Congress last year.
But in meetings with law enforcement officials in the chaotic days immediately after Mr. Comey’s dismissal, and in subsequent conversations with colleagues and friends, Mr. Rosenstein appeared conflicted, according to the four people.
He alternately defended his involvement, expressed remorse at the tumult it unleashed, said the White House had manipulated him, fumed how the news media had portrayed the events and said the full story would vindicate him, said the people, who in recent weeks described the previously undisclosed episodes.
Soooo I wonder why he accepted the job in the first place. Everybody already knew Trump is a very bad man – it’s not as if he’s ever kept it a secret.
In the months since, Mr. Rosenstein has reached out to people — including in late-night texts — to discuss how his reputation has fared and his frustrations with the White House and members of Congress who have targeted him, according to people who spoke to him.
…
Mr. Rosenstein’s conversations last spring offer new insights into the tumultuous week that followed Mr. Comey’s firing.
In a series of meetings at the Justice Department, senior F.B.I. officials argued for Mr. Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel to run the Russia investigation and investigate Mr. Comey’s firing, according to people briefed on the matter. Some of Mr. Rosenstein’s own allies turned on him, accusing him of sullying his reputation by allowing himself to be used by the president.
What I’m saying. You agree to work for Trump, you take the chance of being flung into a pit of muck.
On the afternoon that Mr. Mueller’s appointment was announced, Mr. Sessions was in the Oval Office with the president discussing candidates to be F.B.I. director when they both learned that Mr. Rosenstein had made his decision. Mr. Trump erupted in anger, saying he needed someone overseeing the investigation who would be loyal to him. Mr. Sessions offered to resign.
Trump is more of a mob boss than a president. I know we’ve all been saying that all along, but still that’s striking – “Trump erupted in anger, saying he needed someone overseeing the investigation who would be loyal to him.” That’s not how investigations are supposed to work, unless the mob has taken over.
More recently, Mr. Rosenstein has emerged as one of the chief interlocutors for House Republicans seeking sensitive information about the open investigation. Citing their oversight authority, Republicans close to Mr. Trump have peppered the department with increasingly bold demands and congressional subpoenas; when the Justice Department or F.B.I. has balked, Republicans have threatened Mr. Rosenstein’s job and, in some cases, called for him to step down.
In a hearing on Thursday, Mr. Rosenstein angrily pushed back on House members who questioned his integrity. “You should believe me because I’m telling the truth and I’m under oath,” he said.
Democrats say Republicans are merely picking fights to give the president cause or cover to fire Mr. Rosenstein and replace him with someone who will undercut the Russia investigation.
Not how any of this is supposed to work.
I expect anyone who took a job in those heady days of the early Trump administration thought he would calm down and be more like a regular Republican president once he got settled in. Remember that Rosenstein was one of the US Attorneys ordered to resign by Jeff Sessions but when he dutifully handed in his resignation, Trump refused it. So I can understand his thinking, even if to us Trump’s abnormality was blaring like a foghorn, there were an awful lot of Republicans who assumed that it was all just an act and that normal service would be resumed shortly.
The mistake here was Trump’s. He thought by declining Rosenstein’s resignation and then promoting him to deputy AG, that would make him Trump’s man. But Rosenstein isn’t that kind of man at all, he’s a more old-fashioned breed that actually retains some integrity in the face of what has become an absolute hurricane of shit flying his way. Because he was the one to appoint Mueller and I genuinely doubt he would cave to demands to shut the investigation down. I actually felt sorry for him watching him in front of Congress – I think he was a little taken aback by the GOP’s attacks on him personally and their complete abandonment of all principle up to and including their once sacred Constitution.
Well if that’s the explanation that shows there’s something wrong with them. He was MONSTROUS in his campaign. Remember the bullying of the Khans? Calling for violence at his rallies? Bullying Clinton on stage at the debates? The hail of insults, racism, all the usual? Taking a job in his administration is morally compromising.
And yes I felt sorry for him watching that too. Despite the above.
Mind you it’s the same with Comey. He ruined everything…but I find him convincing anyway. It’s disconcerting.
Maybe, but frankly, I’m jolly glad he’s there. Imagine where we would be with someone more willing to compromise himself for Trump. There’d be no special counsel, no hope of being able to dislodge Trump at all. There’s no guarantee, of course, the GOP are spinning their wheels like mad trying to push back on the investigation. But if we had to wait until the balance of Congress to tip back towards the Democrats, we wouldn’t know anything we know already and by the time a Congressional committee appointed a special counsel to investigate, Trump would have perpetrated even greater horrors.
Thinking like this is the only way I can sleep at night.
Yes, I am too. I feel the need to keep remembering that they are compromised that way but I’m glad he’s there.
I think remembering that he is compromised is important so we don’t begin to see him as an ideal. He is flawed bigly, but there is still a great deal of integrity. He has thrown in with the most corrupt administration in the world, but he can see that it is corrupt and wants it to stop. He supports the overall principles of the Republican Party, those nasty principles that make them a nasty bunch, but he wants to achieve them in a somewhat different manner, one that at least respects the rule of law.
To forget the negatives is to run the risk of promoting individuals in the future believing them to be more than they are.