Rod Rosenstein just made a huge mistake in his resignation letter
In the relatively brief period of time from when he first said he was going to resign, and when he actually submitted his letter of resignation today, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has managed to completely destroy his reputation. He’s come out as a Trump-supporting sycophant who almost surely conspired with his new boss William Barr to try to sabotage the Mueller report. Rosenstein will soon be hauled in to testify about his antics – and he just made it a lot worse for himself.
Rod Rosenstein’s resignation letter is so asinine and over the top, one might initially mistake it for something from The Onion. But the text of the resignation letter has been confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, which means that Rosenstein somehow thought that writing these words was a good idea. The ugliest part of the letter is where he quotes Donald Trump’s “America first” campaign slogan. But that’s not the part he’s going to end up regretting the most.
Here’s the part where Rosenstein made a huge mistake: “I am grateful to you for the opportunity to serve; for the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations.” Wait, what personal conversations? This sets off all the flashing red lights, because the President and the Deputy Attorney General shouldn’t generally be having personal conversations to begin with, and that’s before getting to the fact that Trump has historically used these kinds of situations to ask his underlings to commit crimes.
Rod Rosenstein just gave the House Judiciary Committee a roadmap for precisely what to ask him about when it inevitably subpoenas him to testify. Donald Trump can try to invoke some kind of privilege to keep Rosenstein from squealing, but that doesn’t apply in situations where he’s asked someone to commit a crime. This means Rosenstein can either sell Trump out for all to see, or refuse to answer and be held in contempt of Congress, or lie and risk getting nailed for felony perjury.
