I can’t figure out Rosenstein, and that’s what scares me!
When he first arrived on the political scene, co-authoring the memo that gave Trump a phony pretense for firing Comey, I said “Great, another political hack willing to do Trump’s bidding and toss his integrity into the Trump dumpster fire.”
Then he appointed Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor to conduct the Trump/Russia investigation and gave him broad authority to do so. So then I said “Maybe this guy is a straight shooter who realized his mistake.”
After months of supporting Mueller and not impeding him in any way, he refers an investigation of Cohen (Trump’s Lawyer Fixer) to the Southern District of NY and approves an unprecedentedly massive Search Warrant of Cohen’s work, apartment and residents. So then I said “This guy is a straight shooter.”
Then in response to a question about Trump and the Freedom Caucus, he came out with guns blazing, vowing that the DoJ (i.e., HE) will not be EXTORTED!” So then I said, “Here’s a guy who will not compromise his integrity (even if it means his job) and bow down to Trump.”
Now we have him referring an investigation of an alleged FBI spy within the Trump campaign to the DoJ’s IG based solely on Trump’s say so, and agreeing to hand over “some” classified information on the Trump/Russia investigation to a “Subject” of the investigation (Trump) in a meeting today. So now I’m saying, “Who is this Guy?”
No, I don’t think he has gone over to the “Dark Side”, but I’m not sure what he is up to. Pundits are saying that he is simply trying to appease Trump and buy time for Mueller to complete what has to be a massive investigation at this point. Makes sense, but its all conjecture on their part. Expanding the IGs investigation based on Trump’s suspicions doesn’t worry me since Rosenstein and the rest of us who are not living in an alternate reality know that the FBI did not inappropriately spy on the Trump campaign.
What worries me is what comes out of today’s meeting between Rosenstein, Wray, Trump, Nunes and others. I guess it all depends on what “some” means (i.e., turning over “some confidential information on the Trump/Russia investigation”).
Pessimistically, Rosenstein and Wray will give Trump a boatload of confidential information and sources about Mueller’s investigation of him. Ironically, this could happen because Rosenstein is a straight shooter. He knows that “by law” the President gets to decide what is and is not confidential, therefore he may think he has no legal ground to withhold any information from Trump, regardless of the consequences. This is the Nightmare scenario!
Optimistically, Rosenstein and Wray will give Trump some harmless confidential information and then take a unified stand telling Trump if he wants more, he will have to fire them to get it. This is equally possible because both Rosenstein and Wray have publicly drawn integrity lines-in-the-sand. This is the Dream scenario!
So which will it be? And is there some middle-ground outcome?
Sitting on the edge of my seat!