Rosenstein's testimony was devastating to deep state coup plotters

Charles Lipson:

Rod Rosenstein’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee was quiet, calm, almost bemused. But the tale he told was devastating — to the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Mueller investigation. It destroyed three years of media narrative about ‘Trump-Russia’ collusion. It’s obvious now why Senate Democrats want to kill all future hearings on the topic. They lack the votes to do it, but it’s the thought that counts.

Testifying under oath, Rosenstein laid out a series of fundamental problems plaguing the entire collusion investigation. Actually, he did even more. When questioned by Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, Rosenstein agreed that when he appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel in summer 2017, there was no basis for the appointment and that the FBI already knew it. In retrospect, he says, he appointed a Special Counsel because the FBI hid crucial fact facts from him. They vigorously deny it.

This back-and-forth signals a fight, sure to intensify, over who is to blame for multiple investigations gone badly wrong. Will primary responsibility fall on the FBI or Department of Justice? The intelligence agencies? Or the Obama White House and its National Security team?

Rosenstein is a central figure in this clash since he was number two at the Department of Justice after Trump took office. Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from investigations involving Russia, Rosenstein oversaw them. He supervised the FBI probes, recommended the firing of Director James Comey and the appointment of his successor, Christopher Wray, decided to appoint a Special Counsel, and chose former FBI director Robert Mueller for the job. The FBI and Mueller’s team conducted the actual investigations, but Rosenstein was their ultimate supervisor, the guarantor of their probity. His testimony shows he played that role with the careful attention to detail normally associated with teenage babysitters texting their friends rather than watching their charges. ‘You kids just take care of yourselves. I trust you.’

What did Rosenstein tell us, and why was it so devastating?

• Knowing what he knows now, Rosenstein says would not have signed the FISA application to spy on Carter Page
• Rosenstein cannot explain the basis for Mueller’s investigation of Trump-Russia collusion since, by the time Mueller was appointed in summer 2017, the FBI had already cleared the key people named as possible collaborators
• Rosenstein set out very broad terms for the Mueller investigation. His ‘scope memos’ were widened, not narrowed, after no Trump-Russian collaboration was found
• Although Rosenstein was responsible for supervising the Special Counsel, he testified that he exercised little hands-on oversight. He made no effort to rein in excesses
• Rosenstein flatly denies he tried to remove President Trump, using the 25th Amendment, or wear a wire into the White House to record his conversations with the President
• Though Rosenstein acknowledges serious mistakes, he blames them on the FBI’s ‘lack of candor’. His testimony portends a serious clash between DoJ and FBI officials. This blame game will soon include the CIA, State Department, and Obama White House

Each admission is important in its own right. Together, they are devastating. Let’s consider each one in more detail.
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There is much more.

I think Rosenstein, with just a modicum of due diligence, could have uncovered the truth.  Many of us who were not that close to the case saw through it early on.  He seems to come across as weak and trying to play both sides.  Did he fear what the deep state would do to him if he rejected their coup plot?