Who is Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general whose letter led Donald Trump to fire James Comey? 

Rod Rosenstein
Rod Rosenstein Credit: AP

Until recently Rod Rosenstein was the longest serving of the more than 90 US attorneys in America. But unless you lived in the state of Maryland, you probably would not have realised.

He never sought the limelight and quietly pursued criminal cases under both Republican and Democrat administrations. According to colleagues in Maryland he was a "by the book" and "apolitical prosecutor's prosecutor".

Suddenly, after being confirmed as the US deputy attorney general two weeks ago Mr Rosenstein, 52, finds himself at the eye of the storm.

After lambasting FBI director James Comey in a three page memo, the question everyone wants to ask Mr Rosenstein is whether anyone at the White House asked him to do it.

When a journalist reached him by phone Mr Rosenstein said: "I’m not going to talk about that (his memo). Are you surprised by that?”

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said it was Mr Rosenstein who initiated the memo.

He said: “It was all him. That was a Department of Justice decision.”

But reports on Wednesday said it became clear that the memo - which says the decision to remove an FBI director "should not be taken lightly" - had become the justification for the move, the deputy attorney general threatened to quit.

Mr Rosenstein is a registered Republican but served successfully under both Republican and Democrat administrations.

He graduated from Wharton, the same business school as President Donald Trump, although they were 18 years apart. He went on to study law at Harvard.

He was appointed to be US Attorney in Maryland, the top federal prosecutor in the state, by President George W. Bush in 2005.

Such appointments routinely change with new presidential administrations but he was left in post for the duration of President Barack Obama's tenure.

Earlier in his career he had been part of the Whitewater independent investigation into the Clintons.

Steven Silverman, a Baltimore criminal defence lawyer who knows Mr Rosenstein, recently told Legal News Line: "He is so well-respected.

"He cannot be influenced, he cannot be bought, he cannot be pressured because of outside political forces."

Doug Gansler, the former Maryland Attorney General, said: “He doesn’t have an ounce of politician in him. The minute a prosecutor gets political, that’s when he gets in trouble. And Rod recognises that. He makes decisions for the right reasons and can articulate those reasons.”

Having been confirmed to his new role as deputy attorney general almost unanimously by both Republicans and Democrats in congress, Mr Rosenstein is now overseeing the Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

His boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has recused himself from any Trump-Russia investigation after acknowledging he spoke twice with the Russian ambassador last year.

Mr Rosenstein's dislike of officials going public resonates in his memo attacking Mr Comey.

He heavily criticised Mr Comey for holding a press conference over Hillary Clinton's emails and suggested investigators should get on with their job quietly.

The memo, titled "Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI," accused Mr Comey of "a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do".

It stopped just short of calling for Mr Comey to be fired, but not far short.

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