Trump Picks Maryland US Attorney For The Post Of Deputy Attorney General

President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Rod Rosenstein, United States Attorney in Maryland, to a top Justice Department post, reported the Wall Street Journal. Nominated to his current post in Maryland by President George W Bush in 2005, Rosenstein will be taking the No 2 spot, Deputy Attorney General, at the Justice Department.

Trump's pick for Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions, on Tuesday (10 January) said he would recuse himself on any Clinton-related matters, given his statements critical of her on the campaign trail. That would leave the Deputy Attorney General in charge of decisions related to the Democrat, if any.

Rosenstein has handled a multitude of investigations involving classified information, in large part because the National Security Agency is based in his jurisdiction. He first joined the Justice Department in 1990, and prosecuted public corruption cases. He served as a counsel to the Deputy Attorney General, among other positions, during the Clinton and Bush administrations. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2005 to be be Maryland's US Attorney, or chief federal prosecutor.