Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended former special counsel Robert Mueller during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee as they investigate the Russia probe.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller in 2017 and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked him on Wednesday if he ever had any concerns “Mueller’s investigation was illegitimate, biased, unfairly targeted the president or his campaign.”
The former deputy attorney general said that he spoke with Mueller about “ensuring that there was no bias in the investigation.”
He also mentioned the now-famous texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, saying, “We did have an issue with one of the agents and another FBI employee who were working on the case and I talked to Mr. Mueller at that time and subsequently about the importance of making sure that everybody on his investigation understood whatever their political views, that they needed to set that aside and make sure that the investigation was not affected by any bias.”
Asked if by Feinstein if he believes that the investigation was conducted without bias, Rosenstein responded, “I do because I have confidence in Mr. Mueller’s integrity.”
Watch the video below:
Rosenstein tells Feinstein that he is confident that the Mueller probe was conducted without bias — even after the Strzok/Page texts came out— "because I have confidence in Mr Mueller's integrity" pic.twitter.com/gaXTDHLxAe
— Nate Madden (@NateOnTheHill) June 3, 2020
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also grilled Rosenstein on potential bias within the Mueller probe, asking, “Did that bother you, that you had known Democratic operatives, overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning people who were part of this team?”
Rosenstein responded, “It would have been preferable, senator, to have a more politically diverse group. But if they followed the rules, their political ideology wouldn’t matter.”
He added, “Senator, I had Bob Mueller in charge of this, and based upon that and based upon my conversations with him, I’m fairly confident that political bias did not enter into that investigation.”
See his comments below:
Rod Rosenstein contradicts Trump's line on the Russia probe: "I'm fairly confident that political bias did not enter into that investigation." pic.twitter.com/G3peyLtC5S
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 3, 2020
Rosenstein and Trump had a rocky relationship and Rosenstein was a frequent target of Trump’s tweets. Rosenstein eventually announced that he was stepping down from his post in late May of 2019.