When he began his job as deputy attorney general two weeks ago, Rod Rosenstein had a sterling reputation as a longtime U.S. Attorney in administrations of both political parties. He was viewed as having the integrity to serve as a bulwark of independence in the Trump government. But two weeks in the Trump administration is an awfully long time. After being used by the White House to provide a pretext for the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Rosenstein has only one choice to save his reputation: appoint a special counsel to lead the investigation into links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts to interfere with the election.
The above excerpt was originally published in Just Security.
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