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By Ken Dilanian
WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared Monday to try to mitigate public expectations of the much anticipated report of Special Advocate Robert Mueller, noting that federal prosecutors generally do not describe a behavior that does not is not charged with criminal charges. .
"The advice I have always given to my prosecutors and the agents with whom I worked during my tenure with the front-line security forces was as follows: If we are not willing to to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in court, we can not do anything about it … accusations against US citizens, "Rosenstein said during a question and answer session in a panel of Washington, Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Rosenstein did not want to answer specific questions about the special council's investigation into Russia's interference in the US elections. But his comments came amidst a growing expectation that Mueller forward a confidential report to the Attorney General in the coming weeks – a report that could describe his decision not to prosecute the people he was investigating.
The rules seem to give Mueller great latitude to create a narrative explaining what he discovered about the many unexplained contacts between his associates and the Russians, whether or not he carries criminal charges.
But on the question of whether this information will ever become public, Rosenstein seemed to pour cold water.
He criticized former FBI director James Comey for publicly accusing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and his aides in July 2016 of being "extremely carefree in the treatment of". 39, very sensitive and highly confidential information ".
For Rosenstein, transparency is not always a good thing when it comes to police investigations.
"This is not because the government is collecting information that this information is accurate," he said. "It can be very misleading if you're too transparent about the information the government is collecting, so I think we need to be very careful about it."
In his prepared remarks, Rosenstein also welcomed Attorney General William Barr as "yet another example of a superb appointment made by President Trump, which reflects, in my view, a commitment to the primacy of the law".
Rosenstein, who was informed of all aspects of the Mueller investigation, would not have said that if he expected him to expect a report accusing Trump of misconduct.
Democratic members of Congress say that they will summon the Mueller report, call the special advocate to testify and do what is necessary so that the public can know exactly what he has discovered.
"While we recognize the policy of the Department of Justice to remain sensitive to the interests of individuals who will not be subject to criminal prosecution with respect to privacy and reputation, we believe that it is necessary to take into account the particular danger of not holding back the evidence of misconduct of President Trump. "The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, said in a February 22 letter to Barr.
"If the special council has reason to believe that the president has been guilty of a criminal fault or other serious misconduct, then he must give an account of his responsibility before a court or before a judge. But because the department has adopted the position that a sitting president is safe from charge and prosecution, the Congress could be the only institution currently in place to act on the evidence of the law. misconduct of the president, "wrote Nadler.
"To assert that a president in office can not be indicted, and then conceal from Congress any evidence of wrongdoing, because the president will not be charged, that is, convert the policy of the department into one." The President is not above the law. "
Although the Mueller report may contain information about the grand jury that is not normally sent to Congress, there is a precedent for an exception to the grand jury's confidentiality rules.
In 1974, Federal District Judge John J. Sirica ordered that a grand jury report and documents relating to the conduct of President Richard Nixon as part of the Watergate scandal be handed over to the Inquiry. 39 imputation of the Chamber.
Sirica decided that the legislators' need for information outweighed the need for privacy and secrecy.
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