Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be staying at Justice for an indefinite period, instead of leaving in March previously announced. He has discussed this with AG Barr. This is significant for a number of reasons
1) Barr hasn’t made attempts to fire or replace him. In the view of many Never Trumpers, Barr is at least a gray hat, maybe even a white hat. This means the Mueller is continuing unimpeded. Some even speculate Barr is a Trojan Horse that got snuck past Trump’s defenses. Yes, Barr is a hardcore conservative. However, so are plenty of Never Trumpers.
2) Rod Rosenstein clearly expects to Mueller Report to be the Hammer of Thor and wants to be there for support, backup, and protection when the MAGAs go crazy with rage in response to the report. If, as I expect, Trump’s Traitor Tots and Jared get indicted then Trump will also be more deranged than ever before. Trump will probably be indicted too. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says a sitting president cannot be indicted. At the very worst, Trump gets arrested when he leaves office.
3) Rosenstein needs to sign off on other investigations too.
Prosecutors are believed to still be considering false-statement charges against former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was accused in an inspector general’s report of providing inaccurate information about his role in disclosures of information to the media. McCabe denied the allegations, but he was fired with Rosenstein’s concurrence one year ago.
And Greg Craig, the White House counsel under President Barack Obama, has come under scrutiny from prosecutors over his involvement in the illegal Ukrainian lobbying scheme organized by Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman.
FYI: Prett Bahara said he considered recording a phone call with Trump to protect himself. He also says it is credible that Rosenstein was wearing a wire when he met with Trump.
“I tend to believe he was not joking, because there has been a certain kind of conduct that happens,” Bharara said, citing Trump’s falsehoods and explaining that prosecutors routinely take notes, or make recordings, as corroborating evidence.