© Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP PhotoDeputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
Rosenstein's impending departure raises significant questions about the future of Mueller's probe into allegations of collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Kremlin. Rosenstein took on oversight of the Mueller probe in its infancy after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself over concerns that he had misled Congress during his confirmation hearings about his contacts with Russian officials during the campaign.
Two sources familiar with Rosenstein's plans indicated Wednesday that his upcoming departure was not spurred by any singular event.
"The history of DAG appointments is very clear: almost nobody stays more than two years and nobody stays on for a new AG, other than a brief transition," said James Trusty, a former colleague of Rosenstein's at the Justice Department who is now a partner at Ifrah Law. "While Rod has had tremendous longevity in law enforcement, I don't think he ever expected more than about two years from this position. I think it is fairly clear this is not a 'force out' and that he will be well received in the private sector when he decided to make that jump."
It's not clear when the next attorney general will be confirmed, paving the way for Rosenstein's official exit. President Donald Trump in December nominated William Barr, who previously served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, to return to the Justice Department's top spot. He is facing confirmation hearings next week, but Congress has been roiled by a partial government shutdown over Trump's border wall demands.
Since assuming control of the Russia investigation, Rosenstein has been the subject of much criticism from Trump on Twitter, with the president regularly blasting the "Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation." Trump also frequently refers to Mueller's probe as a "witch hunt" and insists that there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow.
In lashing out directly at the deputy attorney general, who was nominated by Trump in February 2017 and confirmed by the Senate overwhelmingly, the president has accused Rosenstein of having a conflict of interest because he was the official who signed off on an application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Trump has also harped on Rosenstein's authorship of a memo justifying the firing of former FBI director James Comey in 2017, an action that Mueller is now investigating as a potential attempt by the president to obstruct the investigation into his campaign. The White House initially said Trump had fired Comey at Rosenstein's recommendation, an explanation later undone by the president himself, who said he had planned to fire Comey regardless of what Rosenstein said and that he did so with the Russia investigation, then overseen by Comey, on his mind.
"Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter)," Trump tweeted in mid-April. "No Collusion, so they go crazy!"
In a November tweet, the president retweeted a photoshopped image depicting his critics and Rosenstein behind bars for "treason." About a week later, Trump asked in another tweet whether Rosenstein was "totally conflicted."
The deputy attorney general's status in the Trump administration had been in limbo for months, though the most recent scramble came last September after a New York Times story describing how Rosenstein allegedly proposed to wear a wire to record the president. The deputy attorney general went to the White House days after that article's publication, weighing his resignation and also expecting to be fired.
But pressure on Rosenstein abated as November's midterm elections grew closer, even as Sessions was eventually removed from his post.
On Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers have similarly railed against Rosenstein for months over his refusal to hand over some sensitive documents relating to the FBI's investigation into 2016 election interference, arguing the documents might imperil ongoing law enforcement work. Reps. Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) even filed articles of impeachment in July over the standoff.
Trump allies - from one-time campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to former chief strategist Steve Bannon - have long urged the president to dismiss Rosenstein, who also authorized a raid in April on the home, office and hotel room of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen. That move was a prelude to the Trump lawyer pleading guilty this summer to a slate of eight charges of tax evasion, financial fraud and campaign finance violations. Cohen has since been sentenced to three years in prison.
Although Trump seemed to ease up on Rosenstein, House hardliners like Meadows and Jordan continued to press the Justice Department No. 2 for answers about his alleged derogatory comments towards Trump and about other details relating to the Russia probe.
Wary of a showdown with the House firebrands, Rosenstein agreed instead to a transcribed interview with two House GOP committee chairs who have since retired, Reps. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.
However, that meeting was scuttled last year for what Goodlatte and Gowdy described as scheduling reasons. It's now unlikely the session will ever take place with both men now out of Congress and the House now under Democratic control.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that she was personally unaware of any plans for Rosenstein to step down and insisted that Rosenstein's planned departure was not due to pressure from the White House.
"I know the deputy attorney general has always planned to roughly stay around two years," she said in an interview on Fox News.
"I haven't spoken to the deputy attorney general myself, so I'll leave any announcements for him or the president to make when they want to do that, but certainly I don't think there's any willingness by the president or the White House to push him out. My guess is that he is making room for the new attorney general to build a team that he wants around him."
Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to the president, also shot down the notion that Rosenstein was being ousted and said that she wouldn't "necessarily" be glad to see him go.
Rosenstein and Trump "have a good rapport, a good relationship," she said in an interview on Fox News, noting that she too thought a two-year tenure was not abnormal.
"He's not being pushed out, nobody's asking him to leave. If he leaves, it's on his own accord. And there are many things that the Department of Justice does that has zero to do with the Mueller investigation," she added.
The Justice Department has been led since early November by Matt Whitaker, the acting attorney general who replaced Sessions.
Whitaker technically assumed direct oversight of Mueller when he became acting attorney general after Sessions' ouster, but sources familiar with the matter have said Rosenstein and his team, led by principal associate deputy Edward O'Callaghan, continued playing a role supervising the special counsel.
House Democrats have been pushing to learn more about who at DOJ has oversight over Mueller and had even secured a commitment from Whitaker to testify before the Judiciary Committee this month. But Justice officials last week asked Democrats to delay the hearing until mid- or late-February, saying they were short-staffed because of the government shutdown and Whitaker's travel out of Washington.
Barr, meantime, can expect questions on who is handling the Mueller probe during his confirmation hearings that are scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Congressional Democrats on Wednesday have already vowed to grill him on how he would handle oversight of the Mueller investigation in light of rumblings of Rosenstein's impending resignation.
"The stakes of the Judiciary Committee hearing and in particular the inquiries to the nominee about what he will do with this investigation," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Wednesday on CNN's "New Day."
"Will [Barr] allow it to complete, will he enable it to have the resources it needs, and he will make sure that the results are available to congress and the American public, those questions assume greater importance" in the event that Rosenstein steps down, he continued.
The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Associates of Rosenstein say that the deputy attorney general had long grown used to his precarious standing and to living with the possibility he would lose his job.
"Rod is not foolhardy. He's not oblivious. But he also has developed really thick skin about his own job and a very fatalistic approach about his job," Trusty said last year.
Rosenstein's mantra during the Trump administration, Trusty added, was this: "When it happens, it happens. But until it happens, I'm going to do my job."
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