Ironically, the big news the week of the election isn’t about any elected office. It’s about an appointed one. Jeff Sessions has just resigned as attorney general. His tenure was defined by his recusal from any investigations related to the 2016 election cycle. Even more ironic, the deputy attorney general who subsequently assumed that role had a much greater conflict than Sessions may have had by any reasonable measure. With Sessions now gone, oversight of 2016-related investigations including the Russia investigation has been passed to his former chief of staff and acting replacement.

But before Sessions resigned, oversight fell on the brother of CDC’s vaccine chief. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s sister is Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

President Trump’s criticism of toxic vaccines goes back a decade, long before he ran for office. He repeated those criticisms as a candidate on the campaign trial. His election reportedly caused employees at Messonnier’s workplace to cry in the hallways. How ironic that the election would also cause her brother to hold an appointment one rung below a cabinet member?

Throughout the course of Rosenstein’s tenure, he has wielded his unprecedented power with strong authority. He appointed the special counsel that continues to run the Russia investigation and ordered the FBI raid on the office of a now-former lawyer of Trump’s. Most recently, Rosenstein announced the indictments of 13 Russians who will never even stand trial.

Now the power that enabled him to do all that has been stripped away as he appears frozen in his position, if he keeps it. He will not even assume the title of acting attorney general. The reason for Jeff Sessions’ removal may not be about Jeff Sessions so much as it is about Rod Rosenstein.