THREAD: Firing Rod Rosenstein Would Be An Unacceptable Move Against Mueller (1/6) themoscowproject.org/dispatch/firin…
Trump’s been desperate to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for months. Yesterday’s stories apparently mischaracterizing a sarcastic comment from Rosenstein sure read like somebody’s trying to provide a convenient pretext for that decision. (2/6) washingtonpost.com/world/national…
Why? Because removing Rosenstein would be a major blow against the Mueller investigation, which Rosenstein oversees. Replacing him with a loyalist—which Trump’s wanted to do for months—would help Republicans smother the probe. (3/6) cnn.com/2018/04/10/pol…
Rosenstein is not some partisan opponent of the president; he’s a Republican who Trump himself appointed. But he appointed Mueller and has backed the Russia investigation, so he became one of congressional Republicans’ favorite punching bags. (4/6)
Why now? Because the investigation is closing in. Members of Trump’s inner circle, including his campaign chairman Paul Manafort and longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, are telling Mueller what they know. (5/6) nbcnews.com/news/crime-cou…
Any unwarranted dismissal of Rosenstein would have been obstruction of justice even before this leak, but if this information was deliberately leaked to give a pretext for firing him, that could expand the obstruction of justice probe even further. (6/6)
