By Laura Jarrett and Evan Perez
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whose office manages the Russia investigation, is planning to leave the Justice Department shortly after William Barr, the President's nominee for attorney general, is confirmed, a source familiar with his thinking said.
The source said Rosenstein is not being forced out, and he has conveyed his thinking to the White House. The move may be the clearest signal to date that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is close to wrapping up.
The deputy attorney general has become a household name given his management of Mueller's work and has signaled to other officials that he would leave when he was satisfied that Mueller's investigation was either complete or close enough to completion that it was protected.
When exactly Rosenstein leaves could shift depending on the timing of Barr's confirmation and the naming of a new deputy attorney general. An official briefed on the discussions said Rosenstein wants to ensure a smooth transition, which includes the Mueller investigation.
Barr's Senate confirmation hearing begins January 15, which means a confirmation vote, at the earliest, could occur in mid-February.
A source told CNN that Barr made it clear to the White House that he wanted his own deputy -- a request that was honored the last time he served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush.
"The attorney general's balls are in the deputy attorney general's pocket, and I'm not putting my balls in anyone's pocket I don't know," Barr recalled saying in a 2001 interview with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Wednesday that she hadn't spoken to the President about Rosenstein's plans but said the deputy attorney general is "doing a great job."
"I know that deputy attorney general had always planned to stay around two years. He would like to help with the transition of bringing the new attorney general in. We hope that happens relatively soon," Sanders said. "I know he wants to allow him to build a new team. He's doing a great job and we'll let him make any further announcements on that from here."
Rosenstein's plans were earlier reported by ABC News. If confirmed, Barr would then oversee the Russia investigation. In a June 2018 memo to senior DOJ officials, Barr reached a decisive and controversial conclusion that President Donald Trump's interactions with ex-FBI Director James Comey would not constitute obstruction of justice. He defended Trump's firing of Comey and called the special counsel's obstruction inquiry "fatally misconceived." It was Rosenstein who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 to investigate any coordination between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russians who sought to influence the outcome of the election after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the probe, citing his own role in Trump's presidential campaign. Rosenstein then oversaw the special counsel's investigation.
Trump has frequently criticized Rosenstein and called the Mueller investigation a "witch hunt."
In September, reports emerged that Rosenstein discussed wearing a "wire" to record conversations with Trump and recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, according to sources familiar with memos authored by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe documenting the discussions. Rosenstein strongly denied the report and Trump had maintained he had no plans to fire Rosenstein.
Nevertheless, in November, the President tweeted out a picture of Rosenstein behind bars.
Rosenstein remained in his role as deputy at the Justice Department when Matt Whitaker was tapped as acting attorney general after Sessions was forced out. Whitaker took on overseeing the Mueller investigation, but Rosenstein's office still manages it day-to-day.
LONG article but worth every minute to read it.
Conservatives: Don’t Fall Prey to ‘Ocasio-Cortez Amusement Syndrome’ Or Underestimate Ms. Warren
Bob Maistros
Yeah, OK, conservatives. Guffaw all you want at 29-year-old political rock star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The young lady is a gaffe machine.
“Three chambers of government.” “Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs.” Getting tangled up in the facts in asserting that Pentagon savings could finance “Medicare for All.” And yes — she did use the word “tippy-top” to describe upper-income taxpayers on “60 Minutes” in defending her recent proposal to skyrocket top rates to 70%.
Meanwhile, how about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s laughably transparent appeal to millennials with an Instagram beer slurp? Not to mention her cringeworthy effort to spin a 1/1024th ancestry as backing claims of Native American heritage — a challenge that had her back on her heels in her visit to Iowa over the weekend.
Ocasio-Cortez: No Laughing Matter
But listen up: For all this duo’s missteps, it would be far bigger one for merrymaking conservatives to sell these two formidable female political forces short.
Take Ocasio-Cortez (if you think you can). Ere she had completed 29 trips around the sun, the underfinanced upstart leveraged her mobilization skills to upend a Democratic House leader. And established herself as both the “future of our (Democratic) Party” and the face of a diverse, different-thinking millennial generation.
Instantly famous after her primary win, she stumped for other leftish candidates, with mixed success but in a way that further raised her national profile, including appearing with fellow Democratic Socialist icon Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Plus before she even took her oath, AOC was taking ownership of entire news cycles. First, with her bold shot across Nancy Pelosi’s bow — high-fiving protesters who had occupied the speaker-to-be’s office.
And thereafter, leading a coalition launching a “Green New Deal,” a pie-in-the-sky climate-change package that the young legislator nevertheless confidently hyped as “the New Deal, the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil rights movement of our generation.”
Warren Is Formidable
...
All which wouldn’t be an issue if elevating this dynamic duo of feminist progressivism weren’t so hazardous to the nation’s health. The rising siren songs of “Medicare for All,” multiculturalism, climate-change activism and income redistributionism echo all the more seductively from their lips to a leftward-drifting party and millennial cohort.
And if you don’t think such far-out notions, forwarded by two compelling, media-savvy, Teflon-skinned spokeswomen, are remotely in the realm of possibility in today’s topsy-turvy political world, let me share four words: Donald Trump, November 2016.
Conservatives, don’t make the same mistake as anti-Trumpers. Take these two seriously. Engage them not with mockery, but respectfully, on the battlefield of ideas, where it matters.
Or someone else will have the last laugh.
1) We have the deadline given to Huber on Jan 21
2) We have POTUS scheduled to be in Davos on or about the 19th
3) We have [RR] scheduled to step-down with the confirmation of Barr. Hearings begin on Jan 15
Wonder if we'll hear of a Mueller announcement for the same time-frame?
Hmmmmmmm....
RATS scurry from the LIGHT.