Deputy AG Rosenstein Pretty Much Throws Comey Under Bus Over Memos

[DonViejo]

Source: Law Newz




by Ronn Blitzer | 9:05 am, July 20th, 2017

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum this week that provided some enlightening insight into his take on the infamous memos written and leaked by former FBI Director James Comey.

“What was your reaction to that, when he said he leaked that information to the press?” MacCallum asked.

Rosenstein said he would not comment on that specific situation, which was his answer to a number of pointed questions about various topics. However, MacCallum asked, as a general principle, if it would every be proper for an FBI Director to take notes of a conversation with the President and leak them to the press.

“We take confidentiality seriously, and so when we have memoranda about our ongoing matters, we have an obligation to keep that confidential,” Rosenstein said. When MacCallum said that based on that, her takeaway was that he would not approve of the release of any memo based on communication with the President. “The general proposition, I think, is quite clear.”

-snip-

Read more: http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/rosenstein-comey-leak-improper-memos-were-confidential/

[Turbineguy]

1. Well, yes, but Presidents are not

usually agents of a foreign power.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. I wouldn't say he threw him under the bus

He apparently continued to deflect until pressed with a generic hypothetical to what was basically a push-question by a Fox News reporter.

[still_one]

3. Excuse me!!! Confidentiality goes out the door when someone asks you to do something illegal.

Obstruction of justice is illegal.

[Roy Rolling]

4. NOT disclosing is a crime

Comey NOT disclosing what he thinks are illegal acts is the crime of "misprision". Comey told his superiors, Trump and the Executive Branch are not his direct superiors.

[Texin]

5. Actually, that's not my "take" from those comments.

As the acting AG, Rosenstein is still a Federal prosecutor within the Justice Department. He's an active employee. He, himself, has a duty to uphold all the rules and procedures of that department. Comey's leaked memos (albeit at his encouragement) within Justice were done so after he had been fired by Chump for "getting to close to Russia" (actually, getting too close to the crime syndicate family's involvement with them). As acting AG, I would expect that Rosenstein would say that leaking information or documentation about an ongoing investigation violates the confidentiality of the investigation and is a violation of non-disclosure rules of the department.

I'm still withholding judgment on Rosenstein at this point. I think everyone is just going to have to wait and see what he does when Chump tells him to fire Mueller. And I do believe that's probably inevitable as is the sacking of Sessions (if not his resignation first).

[Justice]

6. I agree with Texin's analysis

[awesomerwb1]

7. Yeah, but does what Comey did even qualify

as a "leak" since the notes were his, he gave them to his attorney friend after being fired, and the whole planet knew he was going to make them public?

[Igel]

11. Make yourself the center of the dispute.

You have a medical problem and go to a doctor. That problem could be grounds for a lawsuit against your employer. You lifted something heavy Monday morning and hurt your back, and you've been in pain since then.

So you go to a lawyer. You transfer over your medical records, clearly showing physical damage that invariably causes great pain. You tell him that, yeah, you poured the pad for a new garage in your back yard Sunday and your back was really, really sore Monday morning--you really couldn't bend over and almost called in sick. You knew your back was in bad shape, and not only lifted the box but joked and tossed it in the air to show a friend you were a man and could take the pain... then had to quickly bending over to catch it before it hit the floor. He says your Sunday activities and your horseplay were contributing causes and you might not have much of a case.

So you fire the bastard and find Tricky Dick, JD, to handle your case. You work it out to omit the Sunday activities, which now become "light work in the backyard" and your play at work, which became "the box was heavy and slippery, and almost fell." He has a second doctor, Dr. Second, confirm all the same findings, but in more detail.


Before you go to trial, your boss tells you that he has some pretty compromising information on you. When you go to trial, you find that your first lawyer contacted your boss and gave him the medical records you released to him as well as his notes and recordings from your meetings with him. Where you talked about what you did. And how it's really your fault, but you really want to keep your job *and* go to Cancun.

Does that really qualify as breaking confidence, since the notes were his and he gave them to your boss only after you fired him--plus you knew compromising information was out there, anyway? I mean, by handing over the information he even prevented a miscarriage of justice--having your boss pay for something he wasn't responsible for.

Yeah. It qualifies as breaking confidence. You wouldn't have spoken to the lawyer if you knew he'd rat you out. What he did was moral in some sense, but unethical. You could file charges and get him disbarred.

Comey suspected something amiss. He broke the assumption of confidence that has to obtain in the chain of command. Trump wasn't his direct boss. But obviously he *was* Comey's boss. He went to his supervisors, and still hadn't exhausted all the whistle-blower routes. The Republic could have been protected by those routes. But he also had an image to protect and a personal score to settle. We've confused private good with common good, personal conflict with political conflict, protecting the self with protecting the collective.

What he did with Trump was the same thing he did with HRC. The difference is that when it hurt HRC, we had the "political" principle that this was not a matter for public display. But when it hurt Trump, we chose the "political" principle that it must be for public display. Because our principles are often carefully calibrated, minute by minute, to our desires and feelings and political goals. That's not a principle worth admitting. The older words for it were "whim" and "caprice."

[StevieM]

9. Excellent analysis. And I agree. I won't rush to condemn Rosenstein, especially when it comes

to James Comey. The former FBI Director did unbelievable damage to our country.

[asiliveandbreathe]

8. Under normal conditions - like a real president..

“The general proposition, I think, is quite clear.”

[StevieM]

10. Jim Comey should not be treated like a victim or a hero. He placed our democracy in serious peril

through his illegitimate actions.

[joeybee12]

12. He really is a weasel

Nobody should trust him

[rockfordfile]

13. I don't trust Rosenstein. Fox News?

[joeybee12]

14. Going on Faux is a sure sign he can't be trusted

Faux is nothing more than fascist propaganda