Dershowitz: Rosenstein Should Be Recused From Russia Probe

Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be recused from the Russia probe because he wrote the memo President Donald Trump used to fire former FBI Director James Comey.

"He wrote the memo," Dershowitz told Anderson Cooper on CNN. "The first person you call as a witness is Rod Rosenstein" in a trial on obstruction of justice.

"Rosenstein's own status in the case raises deep questions," he said.

CNN reported Tuesday that President Trump was considering firing Rosenstein — and The New York Times disclosed the president tried to dismiss Mueller in December after he had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records on Trump's finances.

"Let's assume he doesn't get recused and he testifies," Dershowitz posed about Rosenstein. "His lawyers will come back and say: 'If he is now recused, we have to go back and see if he tainted anything else.'

"You are telling me it is OK for the same person to be investigating, prosecuting the case, when he knows he is going to be the central witness in the case?" he asked. "That does not pass the smell test."

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