Famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday the questions special counsel Robert Mueller wants to ask President Trump may place added pressure on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe.
“The emphasis in the questions on why the president fired [FBI Director James] Comey strengthens the case for Rod Rosenstein recusing himself, because there’s absolutely no doubt that he will be called as a witness if there is an indictment,” Dershowitz said on CNN.
“If there are charges, if there is an impeachment, if there are any kind of legal proceedings relating to why the president fired Comey, the first witness has to be the man who wrote the memo justifying the firing,” he continued.
A list of queries Mueller reportedly has for Trump — including lines of inquiry about former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia — was leaked to the New York Times Monday.
A memo Rosenstein wrote outlining problems with Comey was touted as a formal rationale for Trump to dismiss Comey on May 9, 2017.
But Rosenstein told members of Congress in a statement later that May there were longstanding issues with Comey’s leadership and that he drafted the document after learning Comey would be fired.
