Rosenstein Still Won't Come Clean - Josh Marshall

[DonViejo]

By JOSH MARSHALL Published MAY 20, 2017 1:41 PM

Before more time goes by I wanted to share a few thoughts about the latest we’ve heard on the role Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein played in the firing of FBI Director James Comey as well as the larger Russia investigation. Rosenstein has now written an explanation and justification for the firing memo and appeared in a close door session before members of Congress.

The memo Rosenstein penned to explain the firing memo and why he wrote it is a minor bureaucratic masterpiece. It does what lawyers are trained to do in an advocacy context: state clearly and emphatically what can be discussed and argued, ignore or seek to make irrelevant what cannot be discussed and put a firm interpretation on what is inherently subjective.

The complexity of this whole story, or rather Rosenstein’s role in it, rests on the fact that within the four corners of the original memo, Rosenstein’s arguments are quite defensible. His argument about Comey disregarding longstanding department guidelines and principles of non-interference in elections is significantly stronger than his argument about usurping the authority of his DOJ superiors. But both are solid. The arguments are not only arguable, they’re frankly hard to argue with. In the second memo, Rosenstein not surprisingly makes a strong stand on just this point. “I wrote it. I believe it. I stand by it.”

Rosenstein is on considerably weaker ground in another declaration. “My memorandum is not a statement of reasons to justify a for-cause termination.” This comes under my third category: “a firm interpretation on what is inherently subjective.” I would say that within the bounds of inherently subjective questions, this claim is about as close as you can get to being demonstrably false.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/rosenstein-still-wont-come-clean

[virtualobserver]

1. Is Josh Marshall trying to provide Trump with justification to fire Rosenstein?

Because Trump would love to do it.

[dchill]

2. K&R.

[virtualobserver]

3. I think that people are being unfair to Rosenstein.

It was not unreasonable for him to write his critique of Comey at the request of his superiors.
The report itself would not constitute wrongdoing.
After he did that, however...the actions that they took probably constituted obstruction of justice in his opinion, so he doesn't want to speak publicly about something that involves a criminal investigation of either Sessions or Trump.

[kentuck]

4. Rosenstein is probably trying to save his job...

But I doubt that it will work. Trump may fire him when he returns?

[Mme. Defarge]

5. Occam's Razor

Let's review some key facts.

Rosenstein knows Comey will be fired before he takes job of Assistant AG. He accepts the job knowing that the FBI has been conducting an extensive investigation into a number of possible illegal connections between the Trump campaign and a hostile foreign power. Either before or after he takes office he writes a memo that is clearly meant to be used as a pretext for firing the person in charge of that investigation. The expectation on the part of the president was that this decision, and the ostensible reason for it, would not only not be controversial but would be praised by Democrats and Republicans alike. The president was no doubt planning to take credit for this decision until it blew up in his face. His instinctive initial reaction was to make someone else take the fall, but Rosenstein cried foul and threatened to resign unless the assertion was retracted - no doubt to try to defend his own reputation and retain a measure of credibility in his role.

All the while, Rosenstein is insisting there is no need for a special prosecutor. He holds to that line until the story comes out that Comey has documented a private conversation with Trump where the president asks him to back off of his investigation of Flynn. At that point Rosenstein knows he would lose all credibility if he did not hire an independent investigator.

On the face of it it would appear that Rosenstein was compromised from the very beginning of his tenure as Assistant AG. As such, I can't help but wonder and worry about how genuinely committed Rosenstein is to the pursuit of truth and justice in this matter that is of the gravest consequence to the survival of our republic.