Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has confirmed he will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the conduct of the probe into the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, telling reporters "even the best law enforcement officers make mistakes."
Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, made the announcement Wednesday that Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate the Trump campaign, will appear June 3.
The committee is the first congressional examination of "Operation: Crossfire Hurricane," the probe of the FBI and Justice Department under the Obama administration of the Trump campaign, since revelations of "serious performance failures" and were outlined in an inspector general's report.
Crossfire Hurricane morphed into the investigation under Mueller.
"During my three decades of service in law enforcement, I learned firsthand that most local, state, and federal law enforcement officers deserve the high confidence people place in them, but also that even the best law enforcement officers make mistakes, and that some engage in willful misconduct," Rosenstein wrote in his statement to reporters.
Rosenstein is the first in what is expected to be a lengthy list of witnesses Graham is expected to call in his promised investigation into the origins and conduct of Crossfire Hurricane, an issue President Donald Trump and his allies have taken to calling "Obamagate."
"This will be the first in a series of oversight hearings regarding all things Crossfire Hurricane and the Mueller investigation," Graham said in a statement.
Among others, Graham said he intends to summon former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and FBI agents Joe Pientka and Stephen Somma.
Among his questions for Rosenstein, Graham said, was the applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a warrant to electronically monitor Trump campaign aide Carter Page, which was based at least in part on information obtained from an opposition research report commissioned by the campaign of Trump opponent Hillary Clinton and initiated Crossfire Hurricane.