By Sari Horwitz, Karoun Demirjian and Elise Viebeck / The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said he appointed a special counsel to restore Americans’ faith in the investigation into possible collusion between associates of President Donald Trump and Russian officials, telling House members Friday that interference in U.S. elections should not be a partisan issue.
The moment brought applause from most lawmakers present at Rosenstein’s all-House briefing, according to several lawmakers present. But despite the positive feeling, several members leaving the briefing expressed frustration with the lack of new information Rosenstein provided about PresidentTrump’s decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey.
Notably, Rosenstein stood by his controversial memo criticizing Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Trump initially used the document to justify Comey’s firing, but Rosenstein told lawmakers that account was not accurate.
“Former Department of Justice officials from both political parties have criticized Director Comey’s decisions,” Rosenstein said in an opening statement devoted largely to defending his memo.
“It was not just an isolated mistake; the series of public statements about the email investigation, in my opinion, departed from the proper role of the FBI Director and damaged public confidence in the Bureau and the Department.”
Rosenstein had briefed senators on Thursday at an event that left several key questions unanswered, including what Trump said to Rosenstein when he told him Comey would be fired and to what degree congressional investigators will maintain access to witnesses and documents given the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel.
These matters did not appear to be resolved on Friday.
Democrats, in particular, left the latest meeting frustrated that Rosenstein was not more forthcoming. Several said they learned nothing new from speaking with him.
Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., described the meeting as a “brief presentation followed by a Q and A. And not a whole lot of A.”
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., recalled the “dissonant moment” when Rosenstein refused to say “who had asked him, if anyone had asked him to write his memorandum.”
“He said, ‘That is Bob Mueller’s purview,’ and that was puzzling to a lot of us,” said Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Asked if Rosenstein believes he is under investigation, Himes said: “All I can tell you is he put lots of other facts about the process of the memo out there, and he wouldn’t discuss that particular point.”
Former House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., called it “suspicious when a lawyer doesn’t write memos for the record.”
“I don’t believe he in any way indicated anyone directed him,” Issa said.
The briefing capped a chaotic week on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers continued to grapple with Comey’s firing and a wave of new investigative reports about Trump’s behavior and the federal probe of possible collusion between his associates and the Russian government.
Several congressional committees have invited Comey to testify about his dismissal as early as next week, though the former director has not confirmed publicly that he will appear.
Rosenstein, only recently installed as deputy attorney general, found himself immediately overseeing a federal investigation into Russian’s election interference after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the matter.
Rosenstein told senators that he knew that Comey would be fired before he wrote a controversial memo that the White House initially used as its justification for the dismissal.
“There are some missing pieces here,” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday, accusing Rosenstein of “intentionally” leaving certain facts out. “What did the president say?”
Rosenstein was not asked whether he threatened to resign after Trump suggested his memo prompted Comey’s dismissal. And he did not settle senators’ concerns about maintaining access to witnesses and documents that will be part of the probe run by the new special counsel, former FBI director and federal prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III.
“How can you subpoena somebody to come to Congress when they’re under criminal investigation? You can’t,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. He lamented that “one of the biggest losers of this decision is public access.”
Rosenstein did, however, emphasize to the senators the independent authority Mueller will wield.
“If one thing is clear from the meeting we just had, it is that Mr. Mueller has broad and wide-ranging authority to follow the facts wherever they go,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “That gives me confidence and should give the American people some confidence.”
House lawmakers were expected to push Rosenstein to reveal more significant details about the Comey firing, his decision to appoint Mueller as special counsel, and the ongoing Russia investigation.
Although Thursday’s meeting was held in a secure room in the Capitol Visitors Center where classified information can be discussed, nothing Rosenstein shared with the senators was “remotely classified,” according to one senator who spoke about the meeting on the condition of anonymity.
“He could have shared what he told us in a public hearing,” the senator said.
Because of Mueller’s wide scope in the Russian probe, Rosenstein referred several of the senators’ questions to the new special counsel, frustrating many of the senators who wanted to learn more.
Rosenstein “was very careful about not going into any details surrounding the removal because he wants to give Robert Mueller the opportunity to make an independent decision” about how to proceed, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said as she emerged from the briefing.
Rosenstein received strong support from the Senate a month ago when he was confirmed by a vote of 94-6 to be the Justice Department’s second-highest-ranking official. But his reputation has come under fierce attack in the past week over the memo he wrote about Comey.
Since Comey’s firing May 9, the calls for Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel intensified, especially from Democratic lawmakers who said he could no longer be impartial in the Russia investigation. Rosenstein had been put in charge of the probe as soon as he was confirmed because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself after The Washington Post reported on contacts he had with the Russian ambassador that he had not disclosed when asked about them during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Rosenstein did not notify White House counsel Donald McGahn of his special counsel decision until 5:30 p.m., the same time Justice Department officials were briefing reporters and 30 minutes before the news became public. Senior congressional aides said that some lawmakers were also given a heads-up in advance of the White House.
In the Senate meeting, each senator was given the opportunity to ask one question. Several Democrats asked multiple questions, and some Republicans took a pass.
Rosenstein told the senators that, in fact, Trump had decided to fire Comey the day before he wrote his memo.
“To me, it was significant that he stated that he knew that the decision to fire Comey had been made the day before he drafted the memo,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.
Why Rosenstein felt compelled to write the memo remains unknown. Durbin said that Rosenstein told the senators that he was not pressured into writing it.
“He learned the president’s decision to fire him and then he wrote his memo with his rationale,” Durbin said.
According to a person close to the White House, Rosenstein was upset about the narrative that emerged from the White House on the evening of May 9. White House officials cast Rosenstein as the prime person behind the decision to fire Comey, even though Trump had already decided to terminate the director. Rosenstein threatened to resign from the Justice Department because of the explanation that White House officials were giving reporters about the firing, said a person close to the White House, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
By May 10, White House officials had backed off blaming Rosenstein for the firing, and the next day, Trump contradicted his own officials and told NBC News that the decision to fire Comey was his alone and that he was thinking of “this Russia thing with Trump” when he made it.
During Thursday’s news conference, Trump contradicted both his own account and that of Rosenstein. “Director Comey was very unpopular with most people,” Trump said. “I also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein.”
The president also expressed surprise that he had not received bipartisan support for his decision to fire Comey. He called the suggestion he had done anything potentially worthy of criminal charges “totally ridiculous.”
Trump had earlier in the morning lashed out on Twitter at the news of the special prosecutor, calling the move a politically motivated “witch hunt” by his Democratic rivals. The president’s anger contrasted with a more measured written statement released by the White House on Wednesday evening, when Trump declared that a thorough investigation would find “no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity.”
Several Republican senators asked Rosenstein whether the Senate Intelligence Committee could continue its own investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election now that Mueller has been appointed special counsel on the same matter. Rosenstein was “unequivocal” that the panel can and should continue its investigation, according to people familiar with his remarks.
The Washington Post’s Kelsey Snell, David Nakamura, Sean Sullivan and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
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