President Trump ordered deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to write the infamous memo justifying why former FBI Director James Comey was fired and Rosenstein was privately emotional and frustrated by the task, according to a new memoir by Andrew McCabe, Comey’s former deputy.
In the new book obtained by The Guardian, McCabe says Rosenstein was “glassy-eyed” and upset during a May 12, 2017 meeting at the Justice Department where he told officials that he wrote the memo against his will. Rosenstein has publicly supported the memo that was used to justify Comey’s firing, which fueled inquiries into whether Trump obstructed justice. In the memo Rosenstein wrote that Comey was fired over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, not the Russia probe, as Trump later admitted.
“He said it wasn’t his idea. The President had ordered him to write the memo justifying the firing,” McCabe wrote, according to the Guardian. McCabe said that Rosenstein admitted he was having trouble sleeping and told people in the meeting, “there’s no one here that I can trust.”
The book is entitled, “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump” and will be released later this month, according to the Guardian.
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Resigning his office in such circumstances may have enabled Rosenstein to sleep better.
And that is what likely drove his appointing Mueller, and allowing him wide berth.
I wouldn’t call it “revenge,” necessarily, but I’m sure he was pissed off to be used that way.
It really is quite shocking how weak and corruptible some people are, especially if they’re Republicans.
Rosenstein knew that Comey had not been fired for his mishandling of the Clinton investigation. He knew that he was being directed by the President to cook up a false pretext for the Comey firing. He knew that the direction to cook up a false pretext meant that the true reason for the firing could not be disclosed. He knew that true reason for firing Comey was, or very well might be, to stop Comey investigating the President and to deter others from doing so. He knew that this was, or very well might be, obstructive of justice.
Upon receiving the verbal direction from the President to cook up the memo, he should have written to the President recording the direction and seeking written confirmation of the direction. If the President gave the confirmation, he should have written back with his reservations and advised the president that the direction was unlawful and could not be executed. He should then have awaited the President’s next move. If it meant being fired, so be it.
The sequence of events since Trump delared for office is so convoluted and byzantine it’s difficult to see the forest for the trees. Intentional or not, Rosenstein kept himself in position to appoint the Special Counsel that may ultimately spell Trump’s doom. If nothing else Mueller’s investigation has severely hobbled and distracted Trump’s administration.
If he did resign, we wouldn’t have Mueller making so much progress as Special Counsel.