President Trump's latest twitter target seems to be his own Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who he blasts for the hiring of a Special Counsel to investigate the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, after writing a letter himself explicitly calling for the firing of James Comey.
"I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt"
I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2017
Of course, Trump's message isn't crystal clear on exactly who the subject of the tweet is and has left some wondering whether he might actually be referring to Special Counsel Mueller. That said, we would note that if Mueller did, in fact, weigh in on the firing of Comey it would almost certainly make him a conflicted party in any obstruction investigation.
Moreover, since Rosenstein did, in fact, draft a letter calling for the termination of James Comey, a letter which Trump revealed publicly on May 9th, it would seem more logical that the tweet is directed at him. Here is an excerpt from our post back in May:
In the letter from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he cites the handling of Comey's Clinton investigation, and says that Comey was wrong to cite his conclusions about the Clinton email probe in July of 2016: "I cannot defend the Director's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton's emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken," Rosenstein wrote.
Rosenstein was referring to Comey's decision to announce in July last year that the probe of Hillary Clinton should be closed without prosecution, but then declared - 11 days before the Nov. 8 election - that he had reopened the investigation because of a discovery of a new trove of Clinton-related emails. Democrats say the decision cost Clinton victory.
Rosenstein also identified several areas in which he said Comey had erred, saying it was wrong of him to "usurp" then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch's authority by announcing the initial conclusion of the email case on July 5.
Comey "announced his own conclusions about the nation's most sensitive criminal investigation, without the authorization of duly appointed Justice Department leaders," Rosenstein wrote. Comey also "ignored another longstanding principle" by holding a news conference to "release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation."
Of course, despite Rosenstein's letter, critics will note that Trump later admitted that he had been considering the termination of James Comey from the moment he took office.