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Senators: Rosenstein knew Trump would fire Comey before memo

Oersted

Member
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Thursday that he knew President Trump would fire former FBI Director James Comey before he issued a memo recommending his removal, according to several senators briefed by Rosenstein.

"He did acknowledge that he knew Comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said, after leaving a closed-door briefing with Rosenstein for the full Senate on Capitol Hill.

She added that Rosenstein declined to provide details about Comey's dismissal because she said Rosenstein is anxious to give wide latitude to former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who Rosenstein appointed as special counsel Wednesday to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, echoed the revelation about Comey's firing when he emerged from the briefing, saying that while Rosenstein wouldn't go into detail, he said the president declared on May 8 "that he was going to fire Comey...on May 9, [Rosenstein] wrote his memo."

More here

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/deputy-...tors-say/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=37765453

Lock (him) up if old
 
So, I mean...he signed off on this knowing Trump was going to do it to...soften the blow, I guess, but then Trump blabbed that he planned to do it which made any deflection Rosentein did totally pointless and just made it look like the admin was just throwing him under the bus?

Shit.

Show.
 
This part seems particularly important:

Other senators who attended Rosenstein's briefing said that Rosenstein didn't address who asked him to write the memo.

"He would not answer that question," Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, said. "He would not completely answer that question."

I get the distinct feeling he's trying to cover for Sessions here.
 

SummitAve

Banned
Trump kept talking up Rod's memo multiple times during the press conference that happened after the senate hearing so it only adds to the confusion.

It could also mean that the decision was made and the explanation was looked for afterwards.
 

besada

Banned
This part seems particularly important:



I get the distinct feeling he's trying to cover for Sessions here.

I get the idea he's covering for Trump. I think Trump called them up and said, I'm going to fire Comey, write recommendations with good reasons.
 
I mean, this really just makes Rosenstein look pretty bad, because it sounds like he was writing this memo to deflect the controversy of the fire that would come with canning Comey to himself over Trump willingly, as opposed to being thrown under the bus without realizing it like it seemed.

Not sure what the game here is, but he obviously wants to go on the record about this. Super weird that he won't say who actually gave him the order. He seems to be both covering up for someone, while throwing Trump under the bus more, and making himself look bad by willingly being part in a move that could be interpreted as obstruction of justice.
 
I get the idea he's covering for Trump. I think Trump called them up and said, I'm going to fire Comey, write recommendations with good reasons.

He's definitely not covering for Trump. He's adding to the fact that Trump planned to fire him before the recommendation came in. I mean, Trump himself said this, but he's specifically going on the record to confirm it, or at least that's how I'm reading it.
 

Chococat

Member
Who ever he is covering for is more like he is just buying time for the FBI and Mueller now. Trying to walk that fine line of appeasing Trump and his cronies while doing his job.
 
I really don't know what to make of Rosenstein in this whole mess. Looking back at all of this, he's probably going to be one of those figures in the story that is understated but whose role was significant in a lot of different ways.
 

theWB27

Member
Who ever he is covering for is more like he is just buying time for the FBI and Mueller now. Trying to walk that fine line of appeasing Trump and his cronies while doing his job.

Leaning towards this. Probably figured the best way to clean this mess up was to take it out of all their hands.
 

RCSI

Member
This part seems particularly important:



I get the distinct feeling he's trying to cover for Sessions here.

From the recent NYT article on Comey's interactions with Trump:

Mr. Wittes said that in another conversation he told Mr. Comey he was encouraged by the fact that the Senate was likely to confirm Rod J. Rosenstein, a longtime federal prosecutor, as the deputy attorney general.

To Mr. Wittes’s surprise, Mr. Comey did not completely agree with him.

“He said, ‘I don’t know. I have some concerns. He’s good, he’s solid but he’s also a survivor and you don’t survive that long without making some compromises and I’m concerned about that.’”
 

The Adder

Banned
Basically it sounds like someone treating what would usually be a routine job ("I'm about to let someone go, I need you to write up reasons for them to be let go") but absolutely isn't routine given the circumstances ("That someone is the man investigating my campaign") as though it were routine and then having it lied about ("The President fired him on the DAG's recommendation")
 
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