Firing Rosenstein Wouldn’t Rid Trump of His Troubles
Mueller’s probe keeps branching out from Paul Manafort to hackers to Michael Cohen.
Whatever the fate of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he’s already given special counsel Robert Mueller 16 months to investigate the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with the Russians. And as the probe has grown new branches, it’s become much harder for the president to stop.
After securing a guilty plea from Trump’s former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, Mueller seems to be “in the fourth quarter” of his investigation, according to James Comey, the former FBI director whose firing led directly to Mueller’s appointment. In 2017, Rosenstein wrote a crucial memo backing Mueller’s investigation into Manafort’s consulting work for the Kremlin-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, though that work predated his involvement in Trump’s campaign. Manafort’s cooperation could be Mueller’s most significant accomplishment yet.