House Democrat Eliot Engel on Thursday said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has been "compromised" for being complicit in the White House's termination of James Comey, the Washington Examiner reported.
Rosenstein wrote the now infamous three-page memo that the White House originally said "recommended" the firing of the FBI director, which President Donald Trump used as the impetus to can Comey.
Though Rosenstein never explicitly recommended the ouster in the letter, Engel, D-NY, said he displayed a "remarkable lack of integrity," the Examiner reported.
"Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein offered their 'recommendations' for FBI Director Comey's dismissal to give President Trump a modest cover, while in fact, the president's anger underlay his outrageous decision to fire the person investigating him," the Examiner quoted Engel.
"Their jobs are to enforce our laws, not give the president cover, and their actions leave them compromised and entangled in the president's scandal."
Rosenstein, on the job for just a few weeks, reportedly nearly resigned over the flap.
Trump on Thursday said he had decided to fire Comey before soliciting and receiving the "recommendation" from Rosenstein.
"He made a recommendation. But regardless of his recommendation, I was going to fire Comey," Trump said.
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