Thread by @epicciuto

My latest from @ArcDigi. Don't forget Rod Rosenstein! It's more clear than ever that Rosenstein should have recused himself from the Mueller investigation. And yet he's been lending his name to all of Barr's nonsense. arcdigital.media/are-we-sparing…

Since it is DoJ policy not to indict a sitting president, avoiding Comey’s mistake in releasing derogatory info about Hillary would always mean that anything harmful to Trump’s reputation in the report could never see the light of day. This is hardly reassuring to the public.

We need to reexamine a question that has dogged Rosenstein since the investigation began: why he never recused himself from supervising it.

As the author of the memo which gave Trump a pretext to fire Comey, Rosenstein was right in the middle of Trump's alleged attempts to obstruct justice. Yet he went along with Barr in denying that there was sufficient evidence to implicate Trump with obstruction.

It is unlikely that Mueller meant to leave the final say on obstruction to the DoJ. Rosenstein appointed him precisely because the appearance of conflict of interest required the investigation be conducted outside the chain of command.

Why would Mueller then put the decision right back in that conflicted chain of command?

Also, if Mueller was never going to indict a sitting president, then his judgment whether Trump committed a crime doesn't matter. What matters is impeachment, which is Congress's decision to make, not his. So he offered them the information to make that decision.

Rosenstein not only lent his imprimatur to Barr’s summary of the Mueller report, he was overseeing the investigation for most of it. We don’t know whether he ever overruled or thwarted Mueller.

He may be thwarting Mueller now. All the more reason Congress should have the unredacted report.

Not damning for sure, but Rod does not necessarily come off in this piece smelling like a rose(nstein). (sorry, trying to delete)

theguardian.com/us-news/2019/a…