During an interview in 2017, Rosenstein shied away from responding to President Trump's ongoing criticism of the Mueller investigation. "Some people might say, 'Well, we should respond every time there's a criticism, because we need to get our position on the record,' " Rosenstein said. "But that's actually not the way that I see it. I think the public's respect for the Department of Justice is in part a product of people understanding that we do not react to every immediate development in the media."