Rosenstein puts aside Russia probe to argue at Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein laid aside the stress of one part of his job Monday to put himself in a different kind of pressure cooker: an argument at the Supreme Court.
Dressed in a traditional morning coat and striped pants, with the added flash of a pair of presidential cufflinks, Rosenstein represented the Trump administration in a case about a prison sentence for a convicted drug dealer at a rare afternoon session of the court.
“Not bad,” he said before the arguments, showing the cufflinks briefly to friends who had come to watch him argue. The cufflinks were sent last week by White House counsel Don McGahn, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.
For a little while, Rosenstein was able to cast off the worries of overseeing the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the occasional public musings from President Donald Trump about whether to fire him. The plan for Rosenstein to appear before the justices has been in the works for months.