Are We Sparing Rod?

William Barr is receiving public vitriol in the wake of his Mueller Report summary—but we should also look at Rod Rosenstein

On Wednesday and Thursday, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team leaked to the press for the first time in two years. Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the Mueller report, they alleged, left the public with a false belief that Trump’s hands were clean.

While Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had decided there was insufficient evidence to implicate Trump in obstruction, Mueller’s team thought the obstruction evidence was quite serious. Also, while it appears Barr was correct that the Mueller report did not establish that Trump and Russia conspired to interfere in the 2016 election, some on the Mueller team felt there was evidence the Trump campaign was manipulated by Russia.

The Department of Justice defended its highest-ups by pointing to former FBI Director James Comey, who released derogatory information about Hillary Clinton despite his decision not to recommend indicting her. Barr and Rosenstein, the sources claimed, were at pains to avoid that same error.

However, since it is long-standing DoJ policy not to indict a sitting president, avoiding Comey’s error would always mean that anything in the…