The most common question I am asked in interviews these days: “Why doesn’t President Trump fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein?” But the better question is: “Why doesn’t Rosenstein just quit?” It’s clear that nobody responsible for picking him wants him around anymore. In case you missed it, even President Trump called him out as a hack.
What’s clear is that Rod Rosenstein has been overcome by swamp gas. The deputy attorney general — and more importantly, his top staff (we’ll get to that in a moment) — seems to have forgotten why he has his job. He has it because the American people wanted the swamp drained of Justice Department institutionalists.
In case you forgot, Rod Rosenstein had what it took to remain as United States attorney in Maryland during the Eric Holder regime of radicalism. Does that explain why he won’t crack down on all the leaks in Robert Mueller’s shop?
Ronald Reagan understood that personnel is policy. And the personnel that Rod Rosenstein has chosen reveal a great deal about Rosenstein’s priorities, and they aren’t the priorities that got Rosenstein his job.
Earlier this year, liberal BuzzFeed posted a glowing report on the lawyers Rosenstein brought with him to serve as his top staff — swamp creatures all. It explains a lot about the swampy reaction to Mueller’s misconduct:
The Justice Department announced last week that Robert Hur, who worked in the Maryland US attorney’s office from 2007 to 2014, would be serving as the principal associate deputy attorney general. James Crowell IV, who led the criminal section in Maryland under Rosenstein, joined the deputy attorney general’s office in January, and is Rosenstein’s chief of staff.
Picks like these were never made during the Obama era. The chief job qualification then was how closely the candidate adhered to the radical legal agenda of Obama and Holder. These weren’t viewed as apolitical slots. That’s why the Left was thrilled with Rosenstein’s choices, and why Trump supporters have taken note of what a disaster they are.
Justice Department lawyers who worked with Rosenstein describe him as an institutionalist worried more about his own reputation, the Department, and the fate of the country, in that order. One former U.S. attorney who worked with Rosenstein told me:
Rod was never going to stick his neck out for Trump or anyone else, and owed his career primarily to his friendship with Phillip Heymann, Lynn Battaglia, and Barbara Mikulski.
Robert Hur
In other words, three Democrats.
There is relief in some quarters that President Trump has nominated Hur to serve as U.S. attorney in Maryland, Rosenstein’s old job, so he may finally be removed from obstructing the agenda of the president. But Hur and Crowell aren’t the only swamp creatures in Rosenstein’s shop. Per BuzzFeed:
Other hires from the Maryland US attorney’s office in recent months include Sujit Raman, who managed the appellate practice in Maryland and is serving as an associate deputy attorney general … and Marcia Murphy, who was the public affairs officer in Maryland and is now Rosenstein’s confidential assistant.
You can’t make this up. Sujit Raman was a winner of a Paul Soros Fellowship.
Yes, Soros, as in arch-enemy of President Trump George Soros. Paul is George’s brother, and both are radicals. Raman’s webpage at the Soros group notes he headed “the Minority Student Alliance” at Harvard Law.
Former Soros Fellow and Assoc. Dep. AG Sujit Raman
Conservatives don’t head the Minority Student Alliance at Harvard Law. Neither do moderates. Leftists do.
Even now, the swamp is harumphing. These are good people, they are apolitical, they went to Harvard Law, they are career professionals.
In other words, they don’t get it. They don’t understand what happened in November 2016.
The people who elected Donald Trump didn’t elect him to see a former “Soros Fellow” become the associate deputy attorney general. They didn’t elect Donald Trump so that the second-highest office in the Justice Department could be filled with career lawyers, some of whom I’ll wager never even voted for him.
Remember, these are political offices. These are political slots. A revolution took place on November 2016. Unfortunately, Mr. Rosenstein seems not to understand that. Instead, he’s tolerated leaks, praised Mueller, and facilitated an environment of political bias in an investigation designed to overturn the results of an election. That he doesn’t understand this only makes his continued employment more absurd. What is good for the Hillary Goose is apparently not good for the Flynn Gander. Huma can lie, and that’s just fine.
If there was any doubt, Rosenstein was praised for these selections by one of the most radical leftist lawyers of the age of Obama: ex-State Department counsel Harold Koh. Koh gave an interview blistering Trump: “Let Trump flood the zone, punch himself out, rope the dope,” he said. “Congress will get tired of him. … The federal bureaucracy will push back with leaks.”
What an endorsement, Mr. Rosenstein.
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Update: Now we know that another top Rosenstein deputy has been demoted because he had ties to the Democratic fake dossier on Donald Trump.
Update: Tucker Carlson reports that another top Mueller deputy who worked for Rosenstein when he was U.S. attorney, Aaron Zelinsky, failed to disclose that he represented the person who installed Hillary’s private server.
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