Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave his role at the Justice Department by mid-March, a senior DOJ official told Fox News on Monday.
An official announcement of who has been selected to replace Rosenstein could come as early as this week. A Trump administration official added that Attorney General William Barr has picked Jeffrey Rosen, who currently serves as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, to take over for Rosenstein, Fox News reported.
Rosenstein’s departure mounted after the firing of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November. He has, until recently, overseen Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. Rosenstein has often been a target of President Trump on Twitter.
Most recently, Trump accused Rosenstein, along with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, of pursuing an “illegal and treasonous” plot against him after McCabe detailed private DOJ discussions about secretly recording and potentially ousting the president.
Let’s not forget that Trump also accused Rosenstein and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe of pursuing an “illegal and treasonous” plot against him, after McCabe detailed private DOJ discussions about secretly recording and potentially ousting the president.
The alleged discussions have been a subject of fierce debate – and conflicting accounts – for months. But McCabe revived the issue during promotional interviews for his forthcoming book, telling CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that Rosenstein was “absolutely serious” when he suggested recording Trump in the tumultuous days following James Comey’s firing as FBI director.
Fox News’ own, Sean Hannity breaks it down farther:
“He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught,” the president tweeted early Monday.
Trump continued: “There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous ‘insurance policy’ in full action!”
