How Jeffrey Rosen reached his Trump breaking point
With the testimony given to the Inspector General by Mr Rosen and with anticipated corroborating testimony from Mr Rosen’s second in command coming this week, it would behoove us to do a little recap of the revolving door of Trump’s Attorney General’s office.
Get your score-cards ready!
First, there was that born-and-bred white nationalist, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of the former Confederate state of Alabama. (That Mr Sessions sprung from a former Confederate is noteworthy and cannot be over-stated for its importance in understanding the 19th century mindset which includes a fundamental racism as well as the erroneous conviction that our Republic is, at root, flawed.)
Mr Sessions was pilloried in a Senate confirmation hearing by then Senator Franken about his suitability for the position. (Spoiler alert: Jeffy was not qualified but was confirmed.)
After Mr Sessions balked at over-stepping his officials bounds as AG when Mr Trump demanded he serve as Trump’s personal attorney, Jeffy was replaced. In a snit, the Orange One groused: “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else.” Someone who was more compliant and more willing to up-end legitimate process, obviously.
With Jeff-Bo sent packing, former lobbyist, Matthew Whitaker, was made acting AG. Whitaker is best known as the purveyor of a ‘man-sized’ commode that would comfortably accommodate the over-sized male member of a special segment of the bathroom-going community. (ahem…)
Nothing more than a valueless place holder, Whitaker was replaced after three scant months with William Barr, who had auditioned for the Bilious Miscreant with an unsolicited screed extolling the righteousness of the imperial presidency. As Billy-boy had served as AG under Bush the Senior, he seemed a natural.
How wrong that assessment was, will be determined by posterity. Barr, however, was a very good fit for the Criminal-in-chief. He acted as the personal attorney which Trump had expected Sessions to be; loyal as a hound to the Bloviating Bully and more than willing to stand judicial convention on its head when the Orange Master decreed it. When Robert Mueller’s report was made, Billy-boy responded to Donald’s dog whistle by undermining his friend’s findings out of hand.
That doggish devotion to the Orange Arse came to end with the trouncing by Joseph Biden in the 2020 election. Perhaps with his career track in mind, Barr announced that the election was free, fair and devoid of any fraud. This was contrary to the flatulent whim of the Tangerine Bloviator who sought to call the election into question. Of course, in the perverse mind of Donald Trump, Barr had to go – even though there was only two months left of ‘The Donald’s’ crime spree in the Oval Office.
The AG baton was passed to Jeffery Rosen to be Acting Attorney-General until Biden’s inauguration. Rosen’s background includes a non-equity partnership in notorious law firm, Kirkland & Ellis and stalling an investigation into corrupt Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke. Rosen also opposed EPA plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. With those ‘Federalist- approved’ credentials, Trump chose Rosen to replace Rosenstein. (Recall that scandal at your leisure.)
As it turns out, Mr Rosen met his personal Rubicon – much as Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions had – in serving the egomaniacal needs of the Lord of Mar-a-Lago. Rosen refused Trump’s order for the DOJ to declare the 2020 election rife with ‘irregularities’. Why Mr Rosen didn’t volunteer to testify at the second impeachment trial is unknown.
It shall be seen where this all leads. It is widely hoped that testimony from Rosen will provide the needed coffin-nails to seal Trump’s doom. Former acting deputy attorney general, Richard P. Donoghue, should corroborate Rosen’s lurid and terrifying story this week. Keep the popcorn buttered.
