Former Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein told the FBI he was "angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed" at the way James Comey was fired as FBI director. An FBI summary of that interview was among hundreds of pages of documents released Monday, Dec. 2, 2019, as part of a public records lawsuit brought by BuzzFeed News and CNN. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Rosenstein, who left his Justice Department post last spring, was interviewed about his role in Comey’s May 2017 firing. Rosenstein wrote a memo harshly criticizing Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, a document held up by the White House as justification for his firing.
Rosenstein said he believed Comey’s firing was justified because of the former FBI director’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Rod Rosenstein first joined the Department of Justice in 1990, when he was tasked with prosecuting public corruption cases with the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division.
Former FBI Director James Comey made news on two fronts at a CNN town hall Thursday: he concluded that President Donald Trump might well be compromised by the Russian government, and he offered a blistering assessment of top Justice Department leaders William Barr and Rod Rosenstein.
He previously served as a supervisory special agent with the FBI, special assistant to the bureau’s director, including Jim Comey, and is writing a book on recent attempts by elected officials to undermine the rule of law. Follow him on Twitter @joshscampbell. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.