Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was asked by President Donald Trump in December if he was “on his team.”, which then pressured Rosenstein about the direction of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Rosenstein is the one who appointed Mueller to lead the investigation last year. A CNN report says that Rosenstein visited the White House in order to seek help from Trump in fighting off the document requests from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes.
Rosenstein apparently was surprised by Trump’s question and answered, “of course, we’re all on your team, Mr. President.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to The Hill, this exchange is the latest instance of Trump demanding loyalty from senior officials at the Justice Department, who are directly involved in the Russia investigation, a practice many say violates longstanding norms surrounding the independence of federal law enforcement. Former FBI Director James Comey testified to Congress that Trump said to him during a January 2017 White House meeting, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” Comey also told lawmakers that the president asked him to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired for lying to senior administration officials about his contacts with Russia.
Flynn shortly after was charged by Mueller for lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russians during the campaign and transition period. President Donald Trump fired Comey in May 2016 after he refused to let go of the investigation into Flynn.
Apparently Mueller now is looking into Trump’s interactions with Comey and others, trying to determine if the president have obstructed the investigation.
Meanwhile, a new memo reportedly shows that a surveillance warrant for former Trump campaign official Carter Page was approved by Rosenstein. Republican say that the FBI and the DOJ illegally sought the warrant because it was based on information provided from unverified dossier funded by Trump’s political opponents.
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