Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein declares war against Donald Trump
Now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is getting closer to pinning Donald Trump in the Russia scandal, Trump’s Republican allies in Congress are suddenly trying to invent phony scandals about Mueller to muddy the waters. This was inevitable. It’s also an opportunity to see how Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in the first place, is handling the matter. It turns out Rosenstein appears to understand the art of war.
From the start of Trump’s illegitimate presidency, I’ve framed this as a nonviolent war to determine whether America remains an independent democracy or becomes an authoritarian puppet of Russia. As such, all of the logical rules of war apply. Both sides, Trump and the Resistance, were going to lose a lot. The “winner” was going to be whoever was still standing after the other collapsed, but there are no real winners in these situations. Another rule of war applies as well: sometimes you have to strategically sacrifice some of your own assets. I believe that’s what Rod Rosenstein just did.
If Rosenstein were merely trying to protect his job because he likes his job, he’d have caved to Trump a long time ago. Instead, Rosenstein has appointed a Special Counsel and stood strongly behind him, even at the risk of getting fired, because he’s trying to do the right thing for America. In that context, Rosenstein absolutely needs to avoid getting himself fired, because the only way Trump can get rid of Mueller is to start by firing Rosenstein. So let’s look at how this latest faux-scandal in the Trump-Russia investigation is playing out.
Mueller removed an investigator from his team who had sent disparaging text messages about Trump. That was the proper move. Every investigator, every FBI agent, every person working in law enforcement has individual political views. But if you’re assigned to investigate a politician, you have to be able to keep your personal political views out of it, and that includes not blabbing to others about how you feel about the politician you’re investigating. Of course the Republicans immediately tried to scandalize this.
Rosenstein responded by essentially throwing the agents involved to the wolves. No due process, no waiting for an internal ethics investigation. He just turned over the text messages involved, and allowed Trump’s hooligans to destroy the reputations of the agents involved. It’s completely unfair, but it gets the job done. It gives Trump the superficial victory he craves, which is the ability to go out there and tweet conspiratorial garbage about the FBI. It satisfies Trump, for now, to the point that Trump is far less likely to feel compelled to try the risky move of firing Rosenstein and Mueller.
Again, Rod Rosenstein isn’t trying to save his own neck for selfish reasons. That ship sailed a long time ago, as he married himself to seeing the Trump-Russia investigation all the way through to the end. Instead he’s merely doing the unfair things he has to do in order to make sure that the investigation can continue. He sacrificed two of his own people in the process. It’s simply the ugly manner in which wars are won. It doesn’t mean it’s right; it’s merely necessary.
