Why did Sessions recuse himself, which wound up making Rosenstein the de facto head of the Justice Department?
Well, Sessions was accused of having met with Russians and of having sought to cover that up by failing to disclose it to Congress.
He had to recuse himself from the investigation, because, being a possible subject of the investigation himself, he could not direct and oversee an investigation which could implicate him.
Or rather -- it could implicate him if his subordinates weren't justifiably worried about probing too deeply into the boss' doings.
So:
Michael S. Schmidt ? @nytmike
SCOOP: McCabe feared that Rosenstein helped provide Trump with cover story for Comey firing. Wrote his own memo about it and later gave it to Mueller. w/@adamgoldmanNYT @mattapuzzo https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/politics/rosenstein-trump-comey-firing-mccabe-memo.html …
We have here an allegation by the former Deputy Director of the FBI that Rosenstein participated in a cover-up of Trump's alleged obstruction of justice (consisting of the firing of Comey). In McCabe's view, Rosenstein's memo was written just to justify an illegal act.
And Rosenstein went along with it.
And McCabe has passed this memo along to Mueller -- who is, technically, Rosenstein's subordinate.
That puts Rosenstein in the same position that Sessions was in when he recused himself -- overseeing an investigation in which he himself might become a subject, and whose presence in the chain of command would be read as a "back off' signal to any subordinate digging into his role.
Sessions recused himself.
Why hasn't Rosenstein?
Where is the call for Rosenstein's recusal?
