JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said morale at the Justice Department remains ‘pretty good,’ despite concerns by current and former prosecutors that President Donald Trump’s rebukes of the department’s leader are unsettling and have made it harder to do their jobs.
Mr. Trump last week chastised Attorney General Jeff Sessions as ‘beleaguered’ and ‘very weak,’ and he has expressed continued frustration with the attorney general’s decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation into Russia’s interference meddling in the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Rosenstein, who has also been a target of the president’s pointed remarks, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he would not ‘comment on any tweets’ by Mr. Trump. He also declined to address the president’s speech last week in which he appeared to condone the rough treatment of suspects in police custody, a matter often investigated by the Justice Department.
The acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is part of the Justice Department, told agents in a weekend memo to ignore Mr. Trump’s comments and ‘always act honorably.’ “
-Del Quentin Wilber and Aruna Viswanatha, “Justice Department Morale Is Unaffected After Trump Rebukes, Deputy AG Says,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 1, 2017 06:34pm