Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended himself by going on offense against some Republicans who drafted articles of impeachment about him, saying the Department of Justice will not bow to outside pressure.
"They can't even resist leaking their own drafts," Rosenstein said during an event Tuesday broadcast by C-SPAN.
Rosenstein was referring to a House Freedom Caucus document that was made public Monday. The conservative group of lawmakers drafted articles of impeachment against the DOJ's No. 2 man in eight bullet points.
Rosenstein noted no signatures appear on the document, so it is unclear which Freedom Caucus members wrote it.
"I just don't have anything to say about documents like that that nobody has the courage to put their name on and that they leak in that way," he said.
Rosenstein said numerous threats have been leveled at him as the DOJ investigates whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Rosenstein is overseeing the special counsel probe because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from it due to his work on the Trump campaign.
"I can tell you that there have been people who have been making threats, privately and publicly, against me for quite some time," Rosenstein said. "I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not gonna be extorted.
"We're gonna do what's required by the rule of law and any kind of threats that anybody makes are not gonna affect the way we do our job. We have a responsibility. And we take an oath, that's the whole point."
Rosenstein has come under fire from President Donald Trump and some Republicans because of his role in the Russia probe. He recently signed off on raids of two offices, a hotel room, and an apartment tied to Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Rep. Mark Meadows, (R-N.C.), serves as chairman of the Freedom Caucus, and fired back at Rosenstein via Twitter.
During Tuesday's event, Rosenstein also addressed the FISA court — which has come under intense scrutiny because DOJ officials used it to kick off the investigation into certain members of the Trump campaign in 2016. He said there is a lot of misinformation thrown around regarding the secret body.
"There's a lot of talk about FISA applications," he said. "Many people that I see talking about it seem not to recognize . . . a FISA application is actually a warrant, just like a search warrant. In order to get a FISA search warrant, you need an affidavit signed by a career federal law enforcement officer who swears that the information in the affidavit is true and correct to the best of his knowledge and belief. That's the way we operate.
"And if it's wrong, sometimes it is, if you find out there's anything incorrect in there, that person is gonna face consequences."
It has been reported Trump has considered firing Rosenstein, which resulted in Sessions saying he would resign if Rosenstein were let go.
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