1/ The White House rejected a House Oversight Committee request for Stephen Miller to testify about his role in Trump's immigration policies, including a plan to bus migrants to "sanctuary cities." White House counsel Pat Cipollone said blocking Miller from appearing before the committee follows "long-standing precedent" established by previous administrations. Cipollone said Cabinet secretaries and other executive branch officials would instead provide "reasonable accommodation" for requests and questions from the committee on immigration policy issues. (CNN / Politico / ABC News)
Here’s Rosenstein clearly taking T’s side about the Russian Investigation and blaming the Obama Administration about not making more of it. Clearly there was a McConnell angle which prevented Obama from doing so * (see reference below)
NYT’s writer, Michael Schmidt gives some of Rosenstein’s choice quotes from his speech tonight.
Mueller Investigation McConnell’s betrayal. While we knew the broad outlines of this story, we now have more details and I think it’s important to remember. Before the 2016 election, CIA Director John Brennan informed U.S. officials including Mitch McConnell that Putin was interfering in the election with the goal of assisting Donald Trump. Not only did McConnell say that he wouldn’t sign on to any condemnations of Russia’s actions, he said if the Obama administration went public he would “all out Brennan as a partisan intervening on behalf of Hillary Clinton.”
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended his handling of the Russia investigation Thursday evening, recalling how he had promised to “do it right” during his Senate confirmation hearing and “take it to the appropriate conclusion,” while taking pointed swipes at what he called “mercenary critics,” politicians and the news media.
"It’s not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges," Rosenstein said, speaking at a dinner in New York where he was honored by the Armenian Bar Association.
…
Rosenstein went on to argue Thursday night that “some critical decisions” had been made before his tenure as the deputy attorney general. The previous administration “chose not to publicize the full story about Russian computer hackers and social media trolls” but the story later leaked to the media, he argued, and then-FBI Director James Comey then told Congress there was a counterintelligence investigation and alleged that Trump “pressured him to close the investigation.”
“The bottom line is that there was overwhelming evidence that Russian operatives had hacked American computers and defrauded American citizens, and that was only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord and undermine America,” he added.
Rosenstein stood by his decision to appoint Mueller, despite the fact that “not everybody was happy with my decision, in case you didn’t notice” – a possible reference to Trump’s vocal and long-standing misgivings about the need for and motivations of the special counsel’s team.