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Must Read: Count Rod Rosenstein, the guy who tapped Robert Mueller, among Trump's toadies. Sad!
This piece dissects Rosenstein down to the bone. Very cathartic to read the whole thing:https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-05/rod-rosenstein-james-comey-twitter
Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general once known for setting the Trump-Russia investigation in motion, retired in May. After a long career as a public servant, he wanted to spend more time with Twitter.
A good man’s failing. But though Rosenstein’s bio quotes Thomas Jefferson — “It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor” — he doesn’t seem very vigorous. He’s tetchy. Tetchy in defense of himself, Atty. Gen. William Barr and President Trump.
Why didn’t the pensioner Rosenstein take a breather, join a book group, maybe do some journaling?
Instead he has opted, to the surprise of former apologists, to play the goat, defending Trump’s rogue administration in a strategy that has almost invariably ended badly. (See: Michael Cohen, inmate No. 86067-054 at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution.)
Somewhere in there must be the Rosenstein who appointed Robert S. Mueller III to lead the probe that turned up evidence of gross misconduct by the president and yielded 199 criminal charges, 37 indictments or guilty pleas and five prison sentences. Somewhere in there must be the Rosenstein who protected the Russia investigation from the president’s numberless efforts to capsize it.
But the Rosenstein who shows up on Twitter is the accomplice who stood behind Barr on April 18, immobile and glassy-eyed as Barr extravagantly lied about Mueller’s findings.
In that moment, Rosenstein forfeited his legacy. He now deserves to be known as an obstructor of justice and not an avatar of it.
A good man’s failing. But though Rosenstein’s bio quotes Thomas Jefferson — “It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor” — he doesn’t seem very vigorous. He’s tetchy. Tetchy in defense of himself, Atty. Gen. William Barr and President Trump.
Why didn’t the pensioner Rosenstein take a breather, join a book group, maybe do some journaling?
Instead he has opted, to the surprise of former apologists, to play the goat, defending Trump’s rogue administration in a strategy that has almost invariably ended badly. (See: Michael Cohen, inmate No. 86067-054 at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution.)
Somewhere in there must be the Rosenstein who appointed Robert S. Mueller III to lead the probe that turned up evidence of gross misconduct by the president and yielded 199 criminal charges, 37 indictments or guilty pleas and five prison sentences. Somewhere in there must be the Rosenstein who protected the Russia investigation from the president’s numberless efforts to capsize it.
But the Rosenstein who shows up on Twitter is the accomplice who stood behind Barr on April 18, immobile and glassy-eyed as Barr extravagantly lied about Mueller’s findings.
In that moment, Rosenstein forfeited his legacy. He now deserves to be known as an obstructor of justice and not an avatar of it.
Response from Asha Rangappa, whose twitter "war" with Rosenstein is deliciously referenced in the full piece.
Link to tweet
4 replies
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