{"id":100676,"date":"2018-07-02T17:27:36","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T21:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=100676"},"modified":"2018-07-02T17:30:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T21:30:23","slug":"deputy-ag-rod-rosenstein-has-no-more-credibility-he-actually-never-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=100676","title":{"rendered":"Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has no more credibility, he actually never did"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rosenstein conflicts undermine legitimacy of Mueller’s investigation<\/h1>\n

BY SHARYL ATTKISSON
\nThe Hill<\/p>\n

In his recent\u00a0testimony<\/a>\u00a0to Congress, Deputy Attorney General\u00a0Rod Rosenstein<\/a><\/span>\u00a0undoubtedly intended to sound reassuring. \u201cI am quite confident,\u201d he proclaimed, \u201cabout my conduct throughout this investigation.\u201d<\/h4>\n
\n

<\/h4>\n

Rosenstein may have reason to feel confident. He\u2019s in a difficult position and his conduct may indeed be above board. And, under normal circumstances, Congress and the public might be comforted by his guarantee.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

But that\u2019s the rub: These circumstances are far from normal.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

We\u2019re in the midst of one of the most important scandals in memory: Our intel agencies and some public officials within them are suspected of abusing power and misusing sensitive tools under their control as political weapons. The allegations reach far beyond the 2016 campaign and transcend party politics, which makes them all the more insidious in nature.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Combine that with the probes into Trump-Russia \u201ccollusion\u201d and\u00a0Hillary Clinton<\/a><\/span>\u2019s classified email practices, and the result may well be the most tangled web of overlapping investigations and competing conflicts of interest we\u2019ve ever seen.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

In this context, it seems unreasonable to be expected to uncritically accept assurances from Rosenstein or other figures and federal agencies \u2014 such as the CIA, the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) \u2014 whose behavior is under the microscope. Yet, they currently control much of the evidence at issue and are making crucial determinations about everything from what to turn over to Congress and what to withhold or redact, the propriety of wiretaps and other surveillance, possible prosecutions, whether they should recuse themselves for conflicts of interest,\u00a0to appointment(s) of special counsel(s) who could investigate their conduct.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

For his part, Rosenstein has several potential conflicts of interest\u2014 at least in perception. And in the realm of legal ethics, perception counts.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Rosenstein recommended that\u00a0President Trump<\/a><\/span>\u00a0fire FBI Director\u00a0James Comey<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u2014 then handpicked\u00a0Robert Mueller<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to investigate why Trump fired Comey. It\u2019s akin to you or I being allowed to hire the guy who\u2019s going judge our own actions. Not only that, Rosenstein\u2019s pick \u2014 Mueller \u2014 is a longtime colleague of Comey\u2019s, whose own behavior was found to be \u201cextraordinary and insubordinate,\u201d according to the recent DOJ\u2019s inspector general report.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Rosenstein reviewed and signed off on controversial wiretaps of Trump associate Carter Page, who was never charged with a crime despite being tracked under four FBI wiretap approvals.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

The wiretaps Rosenstein signed had relied, in part, on anti-Trump political opposition research known as the \u201cSteele dossier.\u201d The FBI reportedly had not strictly verified the research as required under the FBI\u2019s\u00a0Woods Procedures<\/a>. If that\u2019s the case, Rosenstein (or those who work under him) could be implicated in possible violations of those procedures.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Rosenstein is in the position to decide whether to pursue criminal charges against the man who provided the anti-Trump \u201coppo\u201d research used for the wiretaps that Rosenstein approved: Christopher Steele. But implicating Steele \u2014 an FBI source \u2014 could call into question the actions of Rosenstein himself and his colleagues. Rosenstein has taken no public action on a\u00a0criminal referral<\/a>\u00a0against Steele sent to him almost six months ago by Sens.\u00a0Chuck Grassley<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Iowa) and\u00a0Lindsey Graham<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-S.C.).<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Under Rosenstein, the Department of Justice and FBI have withheld and improperly redacted information Congress requested. One key withheld\u00a0text exchange<\/a>\u00a0was dated Aug. 9, 2016. It\u00a0 was between the FBI\u2019s former top counterespionage official, Peter Strzok, and his reported mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page. \u201c[Trump\u2019s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!\u201d Page wrote to Strzok. \u201cNo. No he\u2019s not. We\u2019ll stop it.\u201d Strzok answered. After the texts and other possible misconduct were known internally, both Strzok and Page were allowed to remain on the job.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

All that \u2014 and yet, the clear message delivered at last week\u2019s hearing was: We\u2019re not to worry. Material isn\u2019t being provided to Congress? We\u2019re told nobody\u2019s hiding anything, it\u2019s just that it\u2019s part of \u201can ongoing investigation.\u201d We\u2019re to trust, without the ability to independently verify, that blacked-out passages in emails and other evidence are legitimately withheld \u2014 although the ones making those decisions are the feds themselves who are potentially under investigation. As for previous improper redactions? We\u2019re told we\u2019re paranoid or conspiratorial if we\u2019re dubious about the next batch. When we ask who was responsible for the improper redactions in the first place, the question is diverted. We can assume the same people are still on the job \u2014 but that would be conspiratorial.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

And most of all, even in the face of the DOJ\u2019s inspector general faulting dozens of top officials, lawyers and ethics officials at the FBI and Justice Department, we\u2019re to believe that any who are still there (and their friends) will do the right thing, even if it comes down to exposing their own misconduct.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Lastly, during his testimony, Rosenstein assured Congress that he would certainly discuss with Mueller if there were any conflicts of interest.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Don\u2019t worry. He\u2019ll take care of it.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/campaign\/395080-rosenstein-conflicts-undermine-legitimacy-of-muellers-investigation<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rosenstein conflicts undermine legitimacy of Mueller’s investigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}