Rod Rosenstein

Rod Rosenstein, born on January 13, 1965, is a prominent American attorney who held the position of the thirty-seventh Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 2017 to 2019. Before his appointment, he served as the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, where he gained recognition as the longest-serving U.S. attorney at the time of his confirmation.

Nominated by President Donald Trump on February 1, 2017, Rosenstein was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 25, 2017. His tenure was marked by significant events, including his authorship of a memo in May 2017 that Trump cited as justification for the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey. This action placed Rosenstein at the center of a political storm.

In addition to his controversial role in the Comey dismissal, Rosenstein was involved in the Trump administration's family separation policy, directing U.S. Attorneys to pursue immigration prosecutions that led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents. Following Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal, he appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate connections between Trump associates and Russian officials.

Rosenstein briefly served as acting Attorney General on November 7, 2018, after Sessions' resignation, before the appointment of Matthew Whitaker. He submitted his resignation as Deputy Attorney General on April 29, 2019, effective May 11, 2019. In 2020, he joined the law firm King & Spalding as a partner in their Special Matters and Government Investigations practice.