The first domino in the “Obamagate” scandal is set to tip over.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C. has announced that former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee as it pertains to the origins of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
It will be the first of many.
The session next Wednesday is the first in a series of planned oversight hearings focused on the investigation into Russian election meddling, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
The hearings are part of a broader effort by allies of President Donald Trump to shed light on an investigation that was filled with misinformation and bias.
The Justice Department has undertaken multiple reviews of the Russia probe, and the Trump administration has recently declassified material with an apparent goal of placing Obama administration officials under scrutiny.
Now, all eyes are on Rosenstein.
Political pundits have mused that he’s up first because he knew as early as April 2017 that Trump had no involvement in election meddling or collusion.
At the time, the FBI reportedly told Rosenstein that Trump wasn’t considered a suspect.
Yet he hired Mueller to start an investigation anyway.
He appointed Mueller in May 2017 as and oversaw much of Mueller’s work. In his first months on the job, Rosenstein also signed off on renewing the FBI’s fraudulently filed FISA applications to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded in a December report that the investigation, which started in July 2016 during the Obama administration, wasn’t criminal but still contained serious mistakes and omissions in the targeting of Page.
Graham said Rosenstein would testify about “the new revelations contained in the Horowitz report concerning the FISA warrant applications and other matters.”
In a statement, Rosenstein said he was grateful for the opportunity to testify “about information that has come to light” related to the FISA process and the FBI’s counterintelligence decision-making.
“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,” he said.
He added: “Independent law enforcement investigations, judicial review, and congressional oversight are important checks on the discretion of agents and prosecutors. We can only hope to maintain public confidence if we correct mistakes, hold wrongdoers accountable, and adopt policies to prevent problems from recurring.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article