The Justice Department official who has played a central role in overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller is planning to leave his post soon — but Rod Rosenstein’s exact departure date remains murky and has injected a new round of uncertainty into the high-profile Russia investigation.

Multiple media outlets confirmed Wednesday that Rosenstein is indeed readying to leave his job as deputy attorney general, with two sources familiar with his plans telling POLITICO that the Trump administration official wants to stick around until the Senate has confirmed a new attorney general — a process that will begin next week.


But NBC later Wednesday added a new layer of complexity when it cited a source close to Rosenstein who said the No. 2 DOJ official intends to stick around until Mueller submits his final report to his department supervisors, an open-ended timeline that could drag on for months.

The differences in the two accounts of what Rosenstein is waiting for before leaving DOJ are subtle — but important.

Under the first scenario, Rosenstein might exit in the coming weeks, signaling confidence that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department, William Barr, will protect the Mueller probe.

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Under the second scenario, however, Rosenstein could be sticking around until the spring — or later. Such a scenario would inevitably spark speculation that Rosenstein doesn’t have faith in Barr to properly handle the Russia probe.


The Senate will launch Barr’s confirmation process next week with two days of Judiciary Committee hearings. At the gatherings, Democrats are expected to grill the nominee over his past condemnation of the Mueller probe. Barr last year sent Rosenstein an unsolicited memo criticizing the special counsel’s appointment and calling out Mueller’s “fatally misconceived” investigation into Trump’s potential attempts to obstruct justice.

Whether Barr publicly commits at the hearings to not meddle in Mueller’s work — a pledge Democrats will seek — could determine how quickly the nomination moves, or even perhaps whether it ultimately tanks.

If confirmed, Barr would take on full authority over Mueller’s work. He would have the power to approve or nix potential indictments, for instance. Most notably, though, Barr would have to OK the release of a final report to Congress and the public.

Rosenstein has been Mueller’s boss during the majority of the probe’s 20 months. He assumed ownership of the investigation in its infancy when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself in the case, citing concerns that he had misled Congress about contacts with Russian officials during the campaign.


While acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker technically assumed direct oversight of Mueller when he became acting attorney general after Sessions' ouster in November, sources familiar with the matter said Rosenstein and his team have continued to help supervise the probe.

The notion that Rosenstein would be willing to depart after Barr’s confirmation heartened some prominent Trump critics who have long been concerned the president would use the change in command to curb the Russia probe.

“It’s hard to believe that Rosenstein would leave with Mueller hanging,” said John Dean, the former Richard Nixon White House counsel. “I’m a little worried, but not terribly worried. I think the investigation has so much momentum that no one is going to mess with it.”

Barr’s Republican defenders insist he won’t get in the special counsel’s way.

“I can assure you he has a very high opinion of Mr. Mueller and he is committed to letting Mr. Mueller finish his job,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Wednesday. Over the weekend, Graham had said he hopes Mueller will be done with his investigation by the time Barr is confirmed.

A defense lawyer working on the Russia investigation said Barr’s arrival could even help propel the resolution of the Mueller investigation. Barr can wield a Senate-confirmed authority that Whitaker, as an acting DOJ leader, cannot.

“There are a whole bunch of questions that come with transmittal of the report,” said the attorney. “I’m sure they’d rather have Bill Barr confirmed as the attorney general [to deal with those issues] rather than Whitaker. Probably Whitaker would prefer that, too.”

Still, a former Trump DOJ official understood why Rosenstein might want to stay until Mueller wraps up his work.


“He’s someone who has worked with the Mueller team. To just take off before that’s done would put people in difficult positions if they had to come step into that. It could create a slowdown,” the former DOJ official said.

Nailing down Mueller’s schedule for finishing his work has for months been Washington’s biggest parlor game. Last week, the chief federal judge in Washington approved a six-month extension for the special counsel’s grand jury, which some see as a sign more indictments could still be in the works.

Meantime, Mueller remains occupied with several former Trump officials who have pleaded guilty as part of his investigation, but have yet to be sentenced. These include Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign deputy who has been cooperating with the special counsel since early 2018. A source familiar with Gates’ situation said prosecutors are expected to delay Gates’ sentencing again next week because he continues to help the special counsel’s office.

Mueller has other unfinished business, too. Several people in Trump’s orbit — ranging from longtime Trump associate Roger Stone, to author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, to Donald Trump Jr. — have said publicly or privately that they expect to be indicted.

With so much up in the air, even veteran DOJ observers say they’re left guessing as to Mueller’s targeted completion date.

“My sense all along is it’s got to be close,” said Will Moschella, who ran Justice’s congressional affairs office during the George W. Bush administration. But after noting that a Reagan-era independent counsel took more than seven years to finish, Moschella quickly added, “It could be another year.”

The sources familiar with Rosenstein’s plans who spoke to POLITICO indicated that his upcoming departure was not spurred by any singular event.

“The history of [deputy attorney general] appointments is very clear: almost nobody stays more than two years and nobody stays on for a new AG, other than a brief transition," said James Trusty, a former colleague of Rosenstein's at the Justice Department who is now a partner at Ifrah Law.


Since assuming control of the Russia investigation, Rosenstein has been the subject of Trump’s ire on Twitter. The president has accused Rosenstein of having a conflict of interest because he was the official who signed off on an application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page during the 2016 campaign.

Trump has also harped on Rosenstein’s authorship of a memo justifying the firing of former FBI director James Comey in 2017, an action that Mueller is now investigating as a potential attempt by the president to obstruct the investigation into his campaign.

The deputy attorney general’s status in the Trump administration had been in limbo for months, though the most recent scramble came last September after a New York Times story described how Rosenstein allegedly proposed wearing a wire to record the president.

But pressure on Rosenstein abated as November’s midterm elections grew closer, even as Sessions was eventually removed from his post.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that a Rosenstein departure would not occur due to any pressure from the White House.

“I know the deputy attorney general has always planned to roughly stay around two years,” she said in an interview on Fox News.

Rosenstein’s associates say that the deputy attorney general has already grown used to his precarious standing and to living with the possibility he might lose his job.

“Rod is not foolhardy. He’s not oblivious. But he also has developed really thick skin about his own job and a very fatalistic approach about his job,” Trusty said last year.


Rosenstein’s mantra during the Trump administration, Trusty added, was this: “When it happens, it happens. But until it happens, I’m going to do my job.”

Caitlin Oprysko contributed to this report.