President Trump’s nominee to be the next deputy attorney general will be the first occupant of the post in two decades never to have been either a prosecutor or Justice Department official.
Jeffrey Rosen, currently deputy transportation secretary, appears to have been picked in part because he is the antithesis of his predecessor Rod Rosenstein, a veteran Justice Department official and former U.S. attorney for Maryland who frequently clashed with Trump.
He has virtually no background in the areas most critical to his job — criminal prosecutions and national security — and no experience in the topics of Russia, Robert Mueller, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.
Jamie Gorelick, deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1997, had been neither a prosecutor or a Justice Department official but had national security experience as general counsel at the Pentagon.
Rosen, 60, was nominated by Trump this week. If he’s confirmed by the Senate, he will be reunited with Attorney General William Barr — the two worked together at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis.
“Jeffrey Rosen is a distinguished lawyer who has served at the highest levels of government and the private sector,” Barr said this week. “As an attorney, he has more than 35 years experience litigating complex matters in state and federal courts across the country.”
Rosen, a Harvard Law graduate, held two jobs in the George W. Bush administration — general counsel for the Department of Transportation and then the Office of Management and Budget.
His lack of experience as a prosecutor and as a Justice Department official has drawn criticism from people who say he doesn’t have enough experience to be the department’s No. 2 official. Democrats will press him on that during his Senate confirmation hearing.
The responsibilities of the deputy attorney general include not overseeing the day-to-day operations of the tens of thousands of employees of the Department of Justice, but also representing the department’s interests on the National Security Council and the White House’s Homeland Security Council.
An open question is whether Rosen would oversee special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign. Barr said in his Senate confirmation hearing that he would listen to any recommendations department ethics officials might have, and left open the door to recusing himself.
But Barr also said: “I am not going to surrender my responsibilities.”
The Mueller investigation is reportedly wrapping up, but no one knows for sure, and if Barr had to recuse for any reason, Rosen would run the show.
Rosen has a few things going for him as he heads toward a confirmation hearing. One is that he was confirmed to his current job in a 56-42 vote in 2017, with the help of a handful of Democrats. Another is that the Senate appointed him a day before Mueller was named as special counsel, and he doesn’t appear to have made any public comments critical of Mueller.
The Barr and Rosen nominations give Trump a chance to push the reset button on the Justice Department. Trump battled former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ultimately fired him.
The current deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, appointed Mueller as special counsel. Rosenstein reportedly suggested wearing a wire into a meeting with Trump at the White House. Rosenstein is expected to leave his post in March, once Rosen is confirmed.
