#19 Perhaps Rod Rosenstein also discovered a leaker.
That, and timing. It's a bit long -- sorry:
Byron York: To fire Comey, Trump team waited for Rosenstein
The structure was this: The FBI director reported to the deputy attorney general, who reported to the attorney general, who reported to the president. When Trump fired Comey Tuesday afternoon, that chain of command had been in place for all of 14 days.
Here's what I have been able to glean so far about the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey:
During the transition, there were members of the Trump team involved with justice and law enforcement issues who felt Comey should be fired. They believed Comey had badly screwed up the Hillary Clinton investigation — first to Trump's detriment, on July 5, when he essentially laid out an indictment of Clinton but concluded by saying no charges would be brought, and later to Trump's benefit, on Oct. 28, just 11 days before the election, when he re-opened the Clinton investigation. And then, on the Sunday before election day, Comey meekly said "never mind," as if he had not just intervened in a presidential election.
It's not that the Trump team members who had experience in law enforcement issues were angry that Comey had at times hurt or helped Trump's chances. Looking ahead, the issue was that Comey seemed inconsistent and a weak leader. "All over the map," said one person involved in the transition. "A mess all the way through," said a lawmaker who supports Trump.
But those same Trump team members who believed Comey should go also believed there should be a process involved in doing it. Truth be told, not all of them — some wanted to see Trump fire everybody on Jan. 21: U.S. attorneys, ambassadors, Obama holdovers, everybody. But the more institutionally-minded members of the Trump team wanted to see a process observed. In the case of removing Comey, that involved going through the chain of command.
The structure was this: The FBI director reported to the deputy attorney general, who reported to the attorney general, who reported to the president. When Trump fired Comey Tuesday afternoon, that chain of command had been in place for all of 14 days.
First, it took a long time to get an attorney general in office. Facing Democratic opposition, Jeff Sessions, one of the president's first nominees, was not confirmed by the Senate until Feb. 8. Then, it took a long time to get a deputy attorney general in place. Rod Rosenstein, the deputy — and the man who wrote the rationale for axing Comey — faced similar Democratic delays and was not sworn in until April 26.
Only after Rosenstein was in place did the Trump team move ahead. That was true not only for chain-of-command reasons but also — probably more importantly — because Rosenstein had the bipartisan street cred to be able to be the point man in firing Comey. Even though his confirmation was delayed, Rosenstein was eventually confirmed by the Senate by a 94 to 6 vote, meaning that the vast majority of Democratic senators voted for him along with all of the Republicans.
How important was the arrival of Rosenstein to the bid to fire Comey? This, from a source in a Senate office Wednesday morning: "Many who are suggesting that there's something nefarious about the timing of the Comey firing are likely missing the fact that DAG Rosenstein was sworn in two weeks ago (April 26), and that the FBI Director reports to the DAG on the DOJ org chart. It seems completely normal that the DAG would review their top reports within the first couple weeks of starting." |
[Iran Press TV] US President Donald Trump
Perhaps there is more. Perhaps Rod Rosenstein also discovered a leaker.