Who is Jeffrey Rosen, William Barr's replacement as attorney general?
Rosen was confirmed as deputy attorney general in 2019
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jeffrey Rosen will be taking over as acting attorney general following Attorney General William Barr's resignation.
Rosen previously served as deputy attorney general, a position to which he was confirmed in May 2019 following the departure of Rod Rosenstein.
ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, an outstanding person, will become Acting Attorney General," President Trump announced Monday. "Highly respected Richard Donoghue will be taking over the duties of Deputy Attorney General. Thank you to all!"
The 2019 Senate confirmation vote fell along party lines, 52-45.
Rosen takes over as head of the Justice Department at a time when Trump and his campaign are challenging the results of the presidential election. In August of this year, Rosen warned of possible election interference by foreign actors.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While Rosen said that he had not seen evidence of foreign actors trying to change actual votes, he warned that some appeared to be trying to sow doubt in the American democratic process.
"Some foreign actors are covertly trying to undermine confidence in our elections because they are authoritarian governments opposed to representative democracy," Rosen told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
BARR APPOINTS JOHN DURHAM AS SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE ORIGINS OF TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When Rosen was first confirmed to the deputy attorney general position in 2019, foreign interference in the 2016 election was still a top political concern, as special counsel Robert Mueller had just released the report on his Russia probe findings.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen holds a news conference to announce the results of the global resolution of criminal and civil investigations with an opioid manufacturer at the Justice Department on Oct. 21, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Yuri Gripas-Pool/Getty Images)
The report, which said there was a lack of evidence that Trump's campaign coordinated with Russian interference efforts, contained a number of redactions. Democrats pushed for the release of an unredacted version, which led to a contentious moment at Rosen's confirmation hearing involving Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
"I want your commitment here that you will support full and release of that report to the United States Congress without redactions or edits of any kind," Blumenthal said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rosen informed Blumenthal that he was not the right person to be talking to about this.
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"Well, Senator, I’d like to say this respectfully, but uh, if I’m confirmed I would be the deputy attorney general and I’d be working for the attorney general," Rosen replied.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Prior to joining the Justice Department, Rosen was the deputy secretary of transportation. Prior to that he served as general counsel and senior policy adviser for the White House Office of Management and Budget during President Georgia W. Bush's administration and was a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which he joined following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1982.