New FOIA Docs Show Rosenstein Offered Reporters to be 'Anonymous' Source Shortly Before He Appointed Robert Mueller

Rod Rosenstein

In June of 2017, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decried leaks and said “Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous ‘officials’ …”

“Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations,”Rosenstein warned in a June 2017 statement. “The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations.”

BuzzFeed obtained through FOIA a tranche of emails from the Justice Department showing Rosenstein offering to be one of the ‘anonymous officials.’

About two weeks before Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel, he emailed a reporter [named redacted by BuzzFeed] and told them he would be open to giving ‘off the record background or reportable details.’

“If the latter, I should include OPA,” Rosenstein said in an email.

In another email dated May 12, 2017 leading up to his appointment of Mueller, Rosenstein responded to a reporter asking about CNN story claiming he stated that he did “not see the need for a special prosecutor.”

“Off the record: I have not said anything about that,” Rosenstein responded.

Just days before he appointed Robert Mueller, Rosenstein told a curious reporter “off the record” that he never offered to resign after stories were circulating that he was on his way out.

“None of these stories are from me,” Rosenstein said.

Rosenstein then offered to sit down with them “if/when this blows over.”

In 2017, Rod Rosenstein issued a statement decrying leaks & saying people should be skeptical of stories attributed to anonymous officials

WELL, I just obtained a bunch of emails from DOJ via #FOIA that shows Rosenstein sometimes offered to be one of those anonymous officials pic.twitter.com/3JJlWQcVYH

— Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) September 19, 2019

The New York Times reported last September that Rod Rosenstein offered to wear a wire to record President Trump to oust him via the 25th Amendment.

Rosenstein resigned as Deputy Attorney General in May of this year.