Rod Rosenstein(RR) resigned yesterday effective May 11, 2019. RR went to the White House Monday and personally delivered his resignation letter face to face with the President, according to an administration official and a Justice Department official. It was only fitting that he do that since in his short stint as Deputy Attorney General he often went toe to toe with President Trump.
On Monday, Rosenstein wrote in his resignation letter to Trump, “We keep the faith, we follow the rules, and we always put America first.” Sounds like a great idea we suppose.
Regardless of which side of the aisle you prefer it was hard at times to keep the faith in RR because one wondered whether he was following the rules. It’s hard to put America first if you don’t.
President Trump nominated RR to serve as Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice on February 1, 2017. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 25, 2017. A quick, but very busy, two years later he’s out.
But, in the span of 24 months RR wrote a letter to Trump recommending James Comey be fired, appointed Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor in the Russia mess, either did or did not want to wear a wire when talking to Trump, attempted to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to have Trump removed from office, and approved along with AG Robert Barr the findings of the Mueller Investigation. Trump tells us that he sleeps about four hours a night. Our guess is that RR sleeps about four hours a week.
Research shows he is a registered Republican. Trump didn’t get that feeling, wanting on numerous occasions to fire him. Bad idea Trump’s team told him.
Eleven House GOP members filed articles of impeachment against Rosenstein on July 25, 2018, alleging he has stonewalled document requests from Congress and he mishandled the 2016 election investigation. But they backed down for fear of slowing the Kavanaugh Supreme Court approval process. Bad idea other congressmen told them.
He was in the very good graces of the Democrats until RR added his signature to Barr’s that Mueller’s investigation found no Trump Russia collusion and felt like any instances of obstruction of justice failed to rise to the level of criminal activity. Bad conclusion Democrats told him.
So Trump didn’t like him. Congressional Republicans didn’t like him. And, now Congressional Democrats don’t like him. If everyone disagrees with you up there in the swamp maybe you are putting America first?
So Rod Rosenstein went out like he came in-face to face and toe to toe with his biggest of many critics. Maybe justice was served after all.