Rod Rosenstein's Role In James Comey Firing: Why Deputy Attorney General Threatened To Quit?

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who till now, was more or less a controversy-free figure in President Donald Trump’s cabinet, has come into the limelight after it was let loose that the POTUS acted on his recommendation to fire James Comey, Tuesday.

However, Rosenstein has refused to be painted as the scapegoat by the Trump administration and has even threatened to quit, the Washington Post reports. Apparently, he was caught off guard when the White House put a major part of the blame behind Comey’s firing on him.

Rosenstein might be justified in defending himself because the memo that he drew up and submitted to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Comey, quoted a number of top governmental officials, after which he cited his conclusion regarding the same:

“I agree with the nearly unanimous opinions of former Department officials,” stated Rosenstein in the memo, Vox reports. “The way the Director handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong. As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of his mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.”

Read: James Comey Says 'No Information' Obama Tapped Headquarters, Confirms Russia Probe

Following the untimely end to Comey’s career, many had commented on the absurdity of Trump’s decision to replace the FBI director. Since Trump did not protest on Comey’s action to reopen investigations on Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails during his Presidential campaign, the sudden urgency to fire him now initially seemed to be an odd judgment call by Trump.

People eventually came to the conclusion that the fact that Comey was looking into the Trump campaign’s possible collusions with Russia led him to getting fired. The White House, although, strictly denied such allegations.

Also, getting the very top officials to prepare a case against Comey, including Rosenstein, a pioneer of bipartisanship, who is supervising the probe regarding Russian involvement in the 2016 elections, has been termed as a puzzling decision by Trump.

Making things worse, Comey wasn’t even officially informed that he was getting laid off and he found out the news along with the rest of the world, when he switched on the television, CNBC reports.

Trump chose to justify his decision by simply saying that Comey was being fired because he “was not doing a good job.” The White House also remained vague in giving the exact reason behind the vital decision. The official statement reiterated on the fact that the Trump had considered firing Comey for a long time, and he just implemented the same, Tuesday.

The way the entire affair was handled disgusted many and there has been uproar of criticism regarding the same on social media. Much of the heat is being directed at Rosenstein at present, tarnishing his as of yet spotless reputation.

Read: Kim Dotcom Wants FBI Director James Comey To Be Questioned By New Zealand Police​

Ted Lieu, an USAF veteran and member of the congress has tweeted out that Rosenstein should seriously consider stepping down from his post after being unwittingly played by Trump’s administration.

Following his firing, Comey has reached out to his former staff and colleagues with the following message, as obtained by CNN:

Nationwide protests have broken out since Comey was fired. People took to the streets to display their anger regarding Trump's decision.

Neither the justice department, nor Rosenstein has come forward with an official statement regarding the controversy surrounding Comey's dismissal.