he was ready to resign and convinced, wrongly, it turned out, that president trump was about to fire him. top justice department aides scrambled to draft a statement about who would succeed him. by the afternoon, mr. rosenstein was back at his pennsylvania avenue office seven blocks away, still employed as the second in command at the justice department, and for the time being, at least, still in charge of the russia investigation. if you need a reminder about just how vital rosenstein s role is in the russia investigation, take a look at how trump s lawyer, jay sekulow, planneded to mark rosenstein s departure. i think it s really important that there be a step back taken here and a review and i think it s a review that has to be thorough and complete and a review that has to include an investigationtrans py transpired with statements and al ga allegations going back to strzok and page and bruce ohr and time-out on this inquiry. our colleague, joe