In a somewhat unprecedented move, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has asked the offices of all 93 U.S. attorneys to each provide up to three federal prosecutors to assist the Justice Department in reviewing government records of President Trump’s Supreme Court nomineeBrett Kavanaugh.
Even The New York Times admits this move is “an unusual insertion of politics into federal law enforcement.”
While the Justice Department has helped work on previous Supreme Court nominations, department lawyers in Washington typically carry out that task, not prosecutors who pursue criminal investigations nationwide.
Mr. Rosenstein’s email, which had the subject line “Personal Message to U.S. Attorneys From the Deputy A.G.,” included the sentence, “We need your help in connection with President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court.”
Former law enforcement officials told the Times that Rosenstein’s request is troubling.
“It’s flat-out wrong to have career federal prosecutors engaged in a political process like the vetting of a Supreme Court nominee. It takes them away from the mission they’re supposed to be fulfilling, which is effective criminal justice enforcement,” Christopher Hunter, a former F.B.I. agent and federal prosecutor for almost 11 years, told the publication.
But Michael Zubrensky, a former Justice Department lawyer who oversaw the agency’s Office of Legal Policy, saidKavanaugh’s long paper trail could be the reason for Rosenstein’s request.
Sarah Isgur Flores, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, told the Times that prosecutors have been used in the past to vet Supreme Court nominees. “[T]he scope of the production of executive branch documents we’ve been asked for is many, many times as large,” she said.
Rosenstein also wrote that he would need the equivalent of 100 full-time attorneys to work on the nominee’s confirmation hearing.
As The Hill notes, Kavanaugh previously worked for President George W. Bush’s administration, as well as for the investigation led by Kenneth Starr of former President Clinton. He left a lengthy paper trail that Democrats and outside groups opposed to his nomination are likely to search through for arguments against his confirmation.
Rosenstein has faced pressure from congressional Republicans over his role in overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Democrats have raised the Mueller probe in the context of Kavanaugh’s nomination, arguing that he should not be confirmed because he could end up making decisions on the probe itself.
Start impeachment on the Rosenstine scum, immediately
Rosenstein is a crime boss who will do whatever he has to to undermine Trump. Don’t wait for the sky to fall; Trump pardon Manafort and fire Rosenstein. Listen to Jeff Fake Flake scream on CNN.
The little lying political weasel is on a mission to manufacture a political obstruction to block any additions to Constitutional Conservatives to the Supreme Court Bench. It is time to setup a special investigation of Rodney Rosenstine and the democRAT party!
Police state in action.
Rosenstein is an arrogant irritant in the body politic. Fire him.
Rosenstein’s wife has been Hillary Clinton’s attorney for years.
Rosy and Sessions need to be called before Congress and questioned about ho ordered this S-t. Then based on these answers Congress needs to impeach Rosy in order to give Sessions the reason to fire Rosy. Then Sessions should order an investigation of him, the 2 FBI lovebirds, and all 13 of the angry Dems working for Mueller plus Mueller.
Rosenstein is NOT to be trusted, he needs to be fired to stop the Mueller farce
Just fire him. He is obviously a partisan Democrat/Clinton/Bathhouse Barry aficionado and should not be running the DOJ, which given the absence of Sessions, he is. This is not the way the system works, but the system is broken because of persons like Rosenstein. Fire his smug a** now.
Rosenstein needs to be impeached and if the AG tries to block it impeach him also. We need to rid our DOJ of these biased traitorous people. Rosenstein is not FOR America, he is anti-American.
The must be redirected to releasing the documents that congress has been demanding for months.
Get rid of Rosenstein, he is a traitor to our country.
What business is it of Rod Rosenstein to look into the nominee’s cases? That’s for the Senate to do, not the FBI or DOJ!
There is something greatly wrong in the Justice Department. Rod Rosenstein needs to be investigated. It must be done now.