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Former Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Sunday urged the special counsel investigating President Joe Biden’s handling of classified files to seek an interview with the commander in chief himself.
Earlier this week, the White House confirmed reports that a small batch of classified files were found in Biden’s former private office to a Washington, D.C. think tank on November 2, 2022. This prompted questions about why why its existence was not revealed before November. 8 midterm elections six days later.
The White House has since admitted that a total of six more classified documents were found among Biden’s possessions from his time as vice president, this time, at his private home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Rosenstein, who had appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, pushed back against criticism of his former department for failing to disclose the existence of the documents just before the election.
“It’s not the Justice Department’s job to make public announcements like that,” Rosenstein said on NBC News’ Meet The Press.
Former Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein expressed confidence in the credentials of Trump and Biden’s special counsel, but warned they would be “under attack” because of the political nature of their roles.
The former Trump Justice Department official stressed that he would not have done it if he was still with the department.
“The decision on whether or not to go public would be left to the president and the White House,” he explained.
“So I wouldn’t anticipate that the Department of Justice would under any circumstances make a public announcement about something like that.”
Current Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that he was appointing a former Trump-appointed US attorney, Robert Hur, as special counsel to investigate the matter of the Biden files.
Rosenstein suggested that a “logical step” for Hur would be to ask Biden himself for an interview.
“If I were conducting this investigation, I want to go directly to the source and ask the president directly whether or not he was aware of those documents,” said the former Justice official.
Donald Trump had refused an interview with then-special counsel Mueller, who in turn never subpoenaed the former president. Trump instead submitted a written statement to a list of questions from Mueller.
President Joe Biden is under investigation by special counsel after the White House made multiple admissions of classified documents from his time as vice president found among his private possessions.
Hur’s appointment comes just months after Garland tapped former international war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith to oversee the DOJ’s two investigations into Donald Trump, including taking dozens of classified files to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
Rosenstein argued that Garland cornered himself by touching Smith.
“Having made the appointment in the Trump case, Merrick Garland placed himself in a position where he really had no choice when this matter was brought up, unless the preliminary investigation established that there was no possibility that a crime had been committed.” . explained.
But the former Trump employee spoke highly of both men.
“These are two professionals who spent a lot of time in the Department of Justice,” Rosenstein said.
“They understand that their goal is to focus on the facts and the law, and to apply departmental policy, and these two men will not be swayed by political pressure.”
Although he added as a warning to the pair of prosecutors: “But you are in the political arena where it is inevitable that you will be attacked.”
Asked to speculate on the differences in intent between the Trump and Biden situations, Rosenstein warned Americans to “wait until we get the facts.”
Trump’s interactions with the National Archives have been described as being very different from those with Biden’s lawyers. Lawyers for the former president have been accused of lying to the Archive and to investigators about turning over all the files, only to retrieve more later.
The delay and evidence of the existence of the remaining records culminated in an FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in early August.
Biden’s original classified files discovered at the Penn Biden Center were turned over to the National Archives and DOJ by his private attorneys the day after they were found. A subsequent search uncovered six more at his private Wilmington residence, which were similarly delivered, according to the White House.
But Rosenstein noted that the incumbent Democratic leader had his own questions to answer.
‘You know, the key fact regarding the Biden documents, of course, is what did the president know about those documents? He was he aware that they had been transferred? In the last five years has he handled those documents? He Was he aware of them? Rosenstein said.
‘We just don’t know yet. So I think we can’t even speculate, just based on what has been public record.