Rod Rosenstein Names Former John McCain Lawyer As His Right-Hand Man at DOJ

Thick as thieves.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein today named a onetime lawyer on Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign to serve as his right-hand man on overseeing the Russia investigation.

Ed O'Callaghan, who has been serving as the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the National Security Division, is moving over to be acting principal associate deputy attorney general. He'll replace Robert Hur, who succeeds Rosenstein as the U.S. Attorney for Maryland...

O'Callaghan was an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1999 to 2008 before leaving to join the McCain campaign's "truth squad."

By the way, Rosenstein released a document purporting to grant Mueller permission to investigate Manafort.

Here's the thing: That grant of permission was apparently retroactive, as it came a week after the pre-dawn raid on Manafort's home.

The August 2, 2017, Rosenstein memo clearly is being used by Mueller to affirm Mueller’s authority to investigate Manafort's non-election-related, years-old business dealings. But the timing jumped out at me.

By the time of the August 2 memo, Mueller already was investigating Manafort's business dealings and gathering evidence for an indictment (which would be unsealed less than three months later).

On July 26, 2017 -- a week before the Rosensten memo -- Mueller's team raided Manafort’s home, as the Washington Post reported on August 9, 2017...

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:05 PM

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