The man who both fired James Comey and appointed Robert Mueller to investigate President Trump, Rod Rosenstein, has been able to play both sides of the aisle. The most controversial aspect of his tenure as deputy attorney general was the report by the New York Times that he "suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit."

Rosenstein denied that story as "inaccurate and factually incorrect," lawyerly language that allows plenty of room for the story being substantially correct in all but one or two small details.

Still, Rosenstein has maintained relationships on the conservative side — so much so that he attended the Federalist Society's Barbara Olsen Memorial Lecture at its National Lawyers Convention. But Sean Davis of The Federalist, who also attended, noticed something that seems to tell us where Rosenstein's heart is:

At the Federalist Society annual gala tonight, Rod Rosenstein refused to stand when Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the keynote speaker, was introduced. Recall that Rosenstein allegedly offered to wear a wire against Trump and refused to testify under oath about it. — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 15, 2019



Photo credit: Matthew Nichols, U.S. DOJ.