WASHINGTON — Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is being grilled Wednesday by the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee over the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe — including his decision to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate President Trump.
Rosenstein, 55, faces questioning over his decision to sign off on a foreign surveillance warrant covering Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump 2016 campaign, after the Justice Department’s chief watchdog last December found the Mueller investigation was littered with errors.
The former deputy AG defended his decision to tap Mueller to lead the investigation into Trump, saying he was acting by the book after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself and FBI Director James Comey was dismissed by the president.
“As a result of events that followed the departure of the FBI director, I was concerned that the public would not have confidence in the investigation and that the acting FBI director was not the right person to lead it,” Rosenstein said.
“I decided that appointing a special counsel was the best way to complete the investigation appropriately and promote public confidence in its conclusions,” he continued.
“As we now know, the eventual conclusions were that Russians committed crimes seeking to influence the election, and Americans did not conspire with them,” he said.
But Rosenstein said he would not have signed off on a FISA warrant to spy on Page if he had known that there was no legitimate reason to believe Page was working with Russia, as Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found.
“If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the application?” asked Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R. SC).
“No, I would not,” responded Rosenstein, who resigned from his post in May 2019.
Horowitz testified before the Committee in December 2019 that his investigation found “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in applications to monitor Trump campaign officials, including Page.
FBI agents involved in the Russia investigation pushed ahead with the spy warrant based on information about Page in a report compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele known as the “Steele dossier” — his work funded in part by a law firm that represented the Democratic National Committee.
Rosenstein pointed the finger at the FBI and told lawmakers he approved FISA warrants based on the facts it alleged.
“The FBI was supposed to be following protocols to ensure that every fact was verified,” he said.
In a fiery exchange with GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Rosenstein denied he “rubber stamped” the FISA warrant.
“I’m certainly accountable for it but in order to solve this problem, yelling at me is not going to solve the problem. We need to figure out what happened. Did people engage in misconduct, are there systemic problems, and fix them so it won’t happen again,” he said.
Democrats have accused Senate Republicans of using the hearings into the FBI Russia probe, known as Crossfire Hurricane, as a political fodder to bolster President Trump ahead of the November general election.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D. Il) said Graham on Thursday would issue subpoenas for more than 53 witnesses — suggesting the Republican-led hearings would drag on for months and seek to haul dozens of people involved in the investigation before Congress.
A visibly angry Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D–RI) said the committee had been reduced to running “political investigatory errands.”
Graham on Wednesday shot down those allegations and said the Horowitz report found a “very major abuse of power” by the nation’s spy agencies.
“If you don’t like Trump, fine. This is not about liking Trump or not liking Trump, this is about us as a nation,” Graham said.
“We’re talking about the nominee for president on the Republican side, his campaign being under continual investigation,” he continued.
“We’re going to be talking about how it got off the rails, who’s responsible for getting off the trails and making sure that they’re punished appropriately,” he said.