Sen. Ted Cruz said there were only two ways to characterize the way former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did his job while serving under President Trump.
“You came into a profoundly politicized world, and yet all of this was allowed to go forward under your leadership that unfortunately leads to only two possible conclusions,” Cruz told Rosenstein during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. “Either that you were complicit in the wrongdoing, which I don’t believe was the case, or that your performance of your duties was grossly negligent.”
Rosenstein spent Wednesday morning being peppered by Republican lawmakers for his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the FBI investigation that eventually sparked it.
“Are you aware of other instances the Department of Justice employees fraudulently creating evidence to submit to court?” Cruz asked.
“Every instance that I am aware of, senator, would be appropriately investigated and — and hopefully appropriate action would be taken,” Rosenstein responded.
[Read more: Rod Rosenstein ‘not sure’ if he read full Carter Page FISA before signing it]
The Texas senator and frequent critic of the FBI under former Director James Comey then listed a litany of chances Rosenstein had to stop what has recently been exposed as a fraudulent surveillance operation conducted by federal law enforcement against close associates of Trump.
“On May 17, you appointed Bob Mueller the special counsel. On June 29, you signed the third [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] application. On Aug. 2, you signed the second scope application,” Cruz said.
He continued, “Was there any more important case the Department of Justice had that an investigation into whether the president of the United States is a Russian asset, colluding against the United States?”
Rosenstein replied: “Well, that’s the way you’re characterizing the investigation, senator. There was certainly lots of important investigations, but I view this as one of the most important.”
Recently unsealed documents show FBI agents pressed on with an investigation of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn despite a lack of evidence. Attorney General William Barr has said he believes the counterintelligence probe was opened on “the thinnest of suspicions.”
Trump and his defenders in Congress have pointed to the scandal as evidence of a so-called deep state seeking to undermine Trump even before he was elected president. The president has dubbed the effort “Obamagate” and has accused the former president of being in on the alleged plot.
