That’s what 100 senators learned at a special, closed, “classified”1 hearing from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last Thursday. The House held a similar hearing on Friday.
From what was leaked, it seems that “R-Rod” couldn’t stop talking about what a shit he is. In fact, we now have Rosenstein’s statement from the Friday meeting, so we don’t even have to rely on leaks. According to what Rosenstein told the House, he met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions even before Sessions had been appointed to his new position to discuss replacing Comey.
As justification for replacing Comey, Rosenstein sticks with the reasoning he gave in his now-notorious overnight memo on the subject: that Comey consistently violated Department of Justice policies in his handling of the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton. Gee, Rod, when you told Jeff that you thought Comey had been too mean to Hillary, what did he say? Because in his real-time public statements, Sessions “thinking” was the precise opposite of yours. Did that never come up? And what about the whole idea of replacing the FBI director in the first place, an unprecedented act2, particularly when the FBI happened to be investigating Trump’s campaign, for president, an investigation that, amazingly enough, just happened to involve Sessions himself?
Rosenstein goes to great lengths to explain what his notorious memo wasn’t. It’s not a “legal brief”; it’s not a “finding of official misconduct”; it’s not a “statement of reasons to justify a for-cause termination”; it’s not a “survey of FBI morale or performance”.
Really, Rod? What about that language in your original memo that said “Over the past year, however, the F.B.l.’s reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage, and it has affected the entire Department of Justice.” And what about your conclusion? You know, the part about “The way the Director handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong. As a result, the F.B.I. is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.”3
I guess your memo wasn’t a legal brief, because it certainly doesn’t meet the standards for such a document. It’s not a “finding of official misconduct” because it entirely lacks the substance for such a finding. It’s not a “survey” of anything because you didn’t bother to develop any data on which to base your conclusions about the state of “morale” throughout the FBI and the DOJ as a whole. And it’s not a “statement of reasons to justify a for-cause termination” because you didn’t say anything outright. You only hinted.
According to Rod, he didn’t want his memo publicized: “it wasn’t a press release.” Because he wanted to stab his “friend” Comey in the back, not in the chest.
- “Classified” not because classified information was discussed but so that the press could be excluded. Senate and House Democrats agreed on the lack of information provided by Mr. Rosenstein. ↩︎
- President Clinton did dismiss William Sessions (no relation to Jeff) on the basis of an exhaustive, 161-report DOJ report, based on the sworn testimony of over 100 FBI agents, detailing Sessions’ appetite for freebies, kickbacks, and other financial wrongdoings. These were, nothing of course, compared to J. Edgar Hoover’s financial exploitation of his position, but (fortunately) there was only one J. Edgar. ↩︎
- The portions I’ve quoted appeared in a New York Times article here. ↩︎
