Jeffrey A. Rosen

From 2003 to 2006, Rosen was general counsel at the United States Department of Transportation and acted as counsel for then-Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.[7][8][9][5]

On May 16, 2017, Rosen was confirmed as United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation by a 56–42 vote.[10] There, he served under Secretary Elaine Chao.[5]

On February 19, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Rosen for the position of United States Deputy Attorney General, succeeding Rod Rosenstein upon his departure from the Department of Justice. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 16 by a vote of 52–45.[11] His nomination to become the second-highest law enforcement official was unusual, as Rosen had no previous prosecutorial experience.[5] Attorney General William Barr had urged Trump to choose Rosen as his deputy.[12] Rosen was sworn in on May 22, 2019.[13]

The Wall Street Journal described Rosen as having "kept a relatively low profile both within the department and in public."[14]

In June 2019, Rosen sent a letter to New York state prosecutors inquiring into the case of Paul Manafort and indicating that he would be monitoring where Manafort would be held in custody. Shortly thereafter, federal prison officials informed New York state prosecutors that Manafort would not be held in Rikers Island. Current and former prosecutors described this decision as unusual, because most individuals held in custody while awaiting federal trial are held in Rikers Island, a prison with a reputation for violence and mismanagement.[15]

In late 2019, Rosen stalled a probe of former Department of Interior head Ryan Zinke. Federal prosecutors proposed to move forward with possible criminal charges against Zinke over his involvement in blocking two Native American tribes from operating a casino near a MGM Resorts International gambling facility.[16][17] In doing so, Rosen also prevented the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General from making a report about the casino deal public.[16]

On July 30, 2020, Rosen wrote a letter to the president of the Puerto Rico Elections Commission denying the commission's petition to the U.S. Justice Department to recommend the disbursement of $2.5 million—earmarked under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 for an educational campaign regarding the political future of the Island—to be used in connection with the plebiscite on the political status of Puerto Rico slated to be held in November 2020. Rosen gave as reasons for denying the request that there was insufficient time for the government to complete the request and that the Puerto Rico legislative bill that gave way to the holding of the plebiscite contains statements that the Justice Department did not concur with; namely, that it is not clear that the People of Puerto Rico have rejected the territorial status. The bill authorizing the 2020 plebiscite was drafted to elicit a simple “yes” or “no” answer from the voters to the question: “Do you favor Puerto Rico being immediately admitted to the Union? Yes or No.”[18]

On December 14, 2020, it was announced that Rosen would become acting Attorney General on December 24, the day after William Barr's resignation took effect.[19][20][21] According to a January 21, 2021 report in The New York Times, even before Barr had left, Rosen was summoned to the Oval Office and pressured by President Donald Trump to aid him in his attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election. Trump asked him to file Justice Department legal briefs supporting lawsuits against the election results, and to appoint special prosecutors to investigate unfounded allegations of voter fraud and accusations against Dominion Voting Systems. Rosen declined, saying that the department had already investigated and had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. However, Trump continued to press him and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue.[22] In January, Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, reportedly met with Trump and suggested that he replace Rosen with Clark himself, who would then promote Trump’s allegations of election fraud. Trump decided against removing Rosen only after learning that all the other Justice Department senior officials would resign if he did.[23]