The one-two scoops here on Rosenstein personally approving the Cohen warrant applications — https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/us/politics/trump-russia-mueller-rosenstein.html?smid=tw-share … — and Berman recusal — https://twitter.com/jonkarl/status/983734168134864898 … — are important pieces of information, but neither is necessarily surprising.
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As to Berman, the recusal would make sense if he's met with Trump about the job.
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Again, though, we're yet to have on the record confirmation of any of this stuff from SDNY US Atty's Office, Main Justice, the FBI, or the Special Counsel's Office.
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In fact, the SDNY US Attorney's Office just declined to comment on today's reports, adding, "We have not confirmed or denied the existence of an investigation into this matter."
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Main Justice also declines to comment.
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One thing: I don't get the bit in the ABC story about Rosenstein "approving" Berman's recusal.
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Anyway, the short of this is that there's a lot of sort of likely, but not totally clear reporting out there and just about no one — except the very interested party of Cohen's lawyer — has been talking on the record.
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BTW, if Berman is recused, the #2 at SDNY is Robert Khuzami, "a prosecutor in the Southern District from 1990 to 2002" who served as the SEC enforcement chief under Obama:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/business/robert-khuzami-us-attorneys-office.html …
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In light of Cohen using his Trump Org email address for at least part of the payment facilitation, this makes sense. It also further clarifies that this is coming from a different direction than the Mueller investigation, at least at this point:https://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-seek-stormy-daniels-documents-tied-to-trump-organization-1523379888?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1&mod=breakingnews …
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USA Today reports that Berman was disqualified from the Cohen-related matter by Rosenstein:https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/10/top-ny-prosecutor-geoffrey-berman-trump-appointee-recused-michael-cohen-inquiry/502367002/ …
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If this came from a referral from Mueller's office, Mueller would have reported up to Rosenstein and Rosenstein would determine who gets the referral. If Berman is under consideration to be Trump's US Atty nom, it's not surprising for Rosenstein to determine he's disqualified.pic.twitter.com/dIyhX9yz2M
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[Open to counterpoints on that — but that's a possible way that I can get it to make sense, given that no one is saying on the record what's going on. One person already suggested another possibility: B/c Sessions is recused and Berman's a Sessions appointee, he is recused, too.]
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Lol. Now USA Today has edited its story to say that Berman "was recused by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein." ABC says the "recusal was approved by senior Justice Department officials" who report to Rosenstein, who was informed after the fact.
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The WSJ doesn't have specifics on the apparent Berman recusal, but
@eorden reports that it is so, and says, as I noted was likely earlier, that Khuzami is now responsible for overseeing the Cohen investigation —>https://twitter.com/eorden/status/983837172036972544 …Show this thread
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Did u see my thread yesterday?
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Alas, I did not.
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But if this was outside the special counsel’s mandate, why couldn’t it go to Sessions?
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