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Tuesday, March 19, 2019

UPDATED: The Rosenstein Exit Delay

For anyone wondering what the recent reports that Rod Rosenstein's scheduled departure from DoJ has been delayed means--and, especially, how to square it with Paul Sperry's tweet that OIG is looking at Rosenstein--I suspect that CTH has hit this nail squarely on the head:

Taking in all of the recent developments, the simple explanation here is that new Attorney General William Barr is not letting Rosenstein exit the DOJ until the DAG cleans up the mess he created by initiating the Robert Mueller special counsel probe. 
Any incoming executive would not want to be left holding the bag of consequence for a legal and political fiasco created by a subordinate executive who now attempts to head for the exits.  One can reasonably project that AG Barr would tell DAG Rosenstein he ain’t leaving until the mass of crap he created has been resolved, reconciled and reduced to a manageable level. 
Ask any effective senior executive and they’ll affirm: 
…”Sorry skippy, once you start the bus, you ain’t getting off til the rides over”…

Again, as long as Rosenstein remains at DoJ, he'll be required to respond to all questions from OIG. We've seen this dynamic at work in the past. FBI/DoJ officials held on long after they "should have been" fired. But if they had been fired the legal dynamics would be greately altered. This would also explain why Bruce Ohr--whose past activities have everything to do with OIG's reported interest in Rosenstein--is still at DoJ. It tells us that Ohr was a very central player in the Russia Hoax.

What remains to be seen is whether and how this development plays into the departure of Andrew Weissmann, who has long been reported to be the author of Mueller's report.

UPDATE: Jack Posobiec is providing further detail on what's going on with Rosenstein and Barr. According to Posobiec, Barr asked Rosenstein to write for him a summary of Russia Hoax events. It's not clear how much the summary was supposed to cover: the events in which Rosenstein was personally involved or events as he has come to know them for the entire 2+ years? However, Posobiec does specify that Barr is specifically inquiring into the Carter Page FISA warrant and renewals, one of which Rosenstein signed off on. Whatever the case may be, Posobiec further states that, while Rosenstein completed the summary two weeks ago, Barr still has questions. Which, of course, puts Rosenstein on the spot. Any lack of candor in his summary and he's in trouble. This, says Posobiec, is all part of Barr's own internal review that is focused on FISA abuse.

One assumes, therefore, that if Barr is focusing on FISA abuse he is also in talks with IG Horowitz, whose FISA abuse report has yet to be released. Earlier I pointed out that Horowitz's long awaited report has again been pushed back, and speculated that Horowitz had been waiting for an AG--Barr--who would give him a free hand, that Horowitz felt that Rosenstein had tied his hands. All of this has to make Rosenstein feel that he's on the hot seat.

Posobiec also repeats his claim that both Russians and George Soros linked Ukrainians served as "sources" for Christopher Steele.

5 comments:

  1. What power does the AG have to prevent the DAG from "retiring"?
    Something like a grant of immunity as long as you're a DOJ employee?

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    1. Good question. I'd have to research into federal employee regs--very complex and voluminous. It would probably have to do with requiring someone to finish work that they began and only they can address. Obviously, it can't be like slavery, but I assume that in the terms of employment there must be provisions of some sort.

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    2. Keep in mind that all of these people that we've read about as being held on are all SES. So you'd have to understand the regs that govern that--which I don't. In 2014 a Senior Executive Service Accountability Act was passed to correct what were perceived as abuses in the SES system. The Senior Executives Association at that time claimed that there were no problems. Go figure, eh?

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  2. I suggest that you provide a link to the CTH article.

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    1. Tx Mike. Oversight. As it happens, I was just about to add an update.

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