Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Thursday it is time for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to resign for refusing “repeatedly” to cooperate with congressional investigators.
“Repeatedly over the last several months, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (pictured above left) has not cooperated with congressional oversight attempts and failed to be transparent about his conduct,” Meadows (above right) said in a statement to LifeZette.
“Even more importantly, based on further information we’ve learned over the last week, it’s also clear Mr. Rosenstein has shown a lack of candor in the way he characterized his involvement in a number of events to congressional investigators. Repeatedly, he has declined opportunities to come before Congress and tell the truth.”
“Even as he declines to show up before Congress last week and answer questions, he makes plenty of time for media interviews in the same breath,” Meadows said.
President Donald Trump appointed Rosenstein soon after entering the Oval Office, but their relationship has been stormy ever since. When Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all matters related to the Russian collusion investigation, Rosenstein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller.
Related: Is Rosenstein Resigning or Being Fired? Decision Delayed to Thursday
Rosenstein was also a signer of the FBI’s suspect application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court for approval of government spying on former Trump campaign aides.
He appeared on the verge of resigning or being fired late last month, but that didn’t come to pass after he met with Trump, who has since expressed confidence in him.
Rosenstein has been a central figure for the House Judiciary Committee, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and House Select Committee on Intelligence in their joint investigation, begun last year into decisions the Department of Justice and FBI made during two major investigations tied to the 2016 election.
Related: Rosenstein Bombshell Exposes ‘Wrongdoers’ at FBI and DOJ
Meadows has been actively involved in the investigation as a member of the House Oversight Committee. He’s among the Republicans who have accused the agencies of bias against the president. He echoed his calls for the deputy attorney general to resign in a series of tweets earlier in the day Thursday.
The congressional investigation is focused on irregularities related to both the 2016 election cycle and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct official government business. Rosenstein defied multiple congressional subpoenas while slow-walking documents requested by Congress.
On September 21, The New York Times reported that Rosenstein more recently suggested he secretly recorded the president last year to show the chaos of his administration. He has since denied the claim.
Axios reported on September 24 that Rosenstein offered to resign in a conversation with White House chief of staff John Kelly because he believed he was about to be fired. But the story was subsequently updated to say it was not clear what the reaction was to the offer.
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