Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Wednesday the temporary head of the FBI was “not fully candid” with him about the memos written by James Comey about his conversations with President Trump before being fired as director of the bureau.
Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller in 2017 while overseeing the Russia investigation after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself, made the admission during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also testified that he would not have signed off on the fourth and final Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant targeting onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page if he knew then what he knows now.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the panel, pressed Rosenstein on whether former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who took over in an acting role after Comey was fired in May 2017, would have known about all the flaws with British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier without telling him. Rosenstein said he hoped that was not the case, but he didn’t personally know.
“Did he ever lie to you?” the South Carolina Republican asked about McCabe.
“I don’t believe, senator, that there were any occasions in which I identified that he lied to me,” Rosenstein replied.