Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is not likely to turn the probe into Russian efforts to sway the U.S. 2016 presidential election over to a special prosecutor, several sources familiar with Rosenstein’s thinking told CNN Friday.
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s sudden firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday evening, Democratic lawmakers renewed their calls for a special prosecutor to oversee the agency’s investigation into Russian meddling and potential ties with Trump officials in full force. Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from any investigation, the Democrats are requesting that Rosenstein follow suit and satiate their intensified demands. But it appears that Rosenstein will be having none of it.
“You’ve got a House committee, a Senate committee, and the Department of Justice all working on this.”
“One source says Rosenstein isn’t inclined to make a change unless the FBI investigation appears to be imperiled,” the CNN report read. “The deputy attorney general also believes that there’s nothing he has seen at this point that would require him to recuse himself from the role overseeing the probe led by [U.S. Attorney Dana] Boente, the people familiar with his thinking say.”
Although Trump insisted that he decided to fire Comey on his own, he acted on the decision only after he received letters of recommendation from both Sessions and Rosenstein. While Sessions’ letter threw Democrats into a tizzy as they claimed his participation violated his recusal, the deputy attorney general’s part in the process convinced the Left even further that Rosenstein was incapable of overseeing the investigation process.
“I have said from the get-go that I think a special prosecutor is the way to go, but now with what’s happened it is the only way to go,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Tuesday evening.
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Schumer added Wednesday on the Senate floor that “Mr. Rosenstein cannot be the person to appoint [a special prosecutor]. Serious doubts have been cast on Mr. Rosenstein’s impartiality.”
But Schumer’s insistence can’t really fool anyone, since the New York senator has made it repeatedly and abundantly clear for months now that he would use any grounds to call for a special prosecutor in place of one of Trump’s Justice Department appointees. Even though Rosenstein is viewed widely as an apolitical person who has served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, and even though the Senate confirmed him as deputy attorney general 94-6, those qualifications weren’t enough for the Democrats.
“You’ve got the deputy attorney general, who I would say is about as independent as it comes due to the fact that he has such bipartisan support,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a press briefing this week, adding that the White House doesn’t “think it’s necessary” to appoint a special prosecutor because “you’ve got a House committee, a Senate committee, and the Department of Justice all working on this.”
But ever since U.S. intelligence agencies announced that Russia had sought to meddle in the election between Trump and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton while favoring Trump over Clinton, the Left has clamored incessantly for an independent investigation and a special prosecutor.
Even though Trump thanked Comey in his dismissal letter for informing him “on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation,” the Left ignored that claim in favor of circulating more Russian-collusion hysteria.
In a press release issued Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the FBI to put to rest the Trump collusion narrative once and for all. During a testimony shortly before his ouster, Comey declined to answer conclusively whether or not Trump himself was under investigation.
“I understand why he took that position, but I don’t agree — at least not when it comes to the president and senior government officials. The American people deserve to know if senior government officials are under active criminal or intelligence investigation,” Grassley wrote.
Grassley noted that Comey did brief him and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, about the targets of the FBI’s investigations.
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“It would not be appropriate for me to reveal those details before the professionals conducting the investigations are ready,” Grassley wrote. “But I will say this: Shortly after Director Comey briefed us, I tweeted that he should be transparent. I said he should tell the public what he told Senator Feinstein and me about whether the FBI is or is not investigating the President.
Grassley added that Feinstein and himself “heard nothing that contradicted the President’s statement.
“But the FBI should still follow my advice. It should confirm to the public whether it is or is not investigating the President. Because it has failed to make this clear, speculation has run rampant,” Grassley said.
The Democrats’ unbreakable fixation, however, appears to have done little to persuade Rosenstein to jump onboard and comply with their demands.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, even issued a veiled threat against Rosenstein should the deputy attorney general decline to appoint a special prosecutor.
“If [Rosenstein] doesn’t do that, then I think it’s going to be very difficult to solicit a lot of support from Democrats … in terms of whoever the President picks to be a permanent FBI director,” Warner told CNN Friday.
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