Just how deep did the rot go at the FBI and DOJ? It apparently wasn’t just James Comey and his merry band misusing their power to target their opponents during the first few years of the Trump presidency. Chuck Grassley revealed in a letter this week that Rod Rosenstein also resisted any oversight of the Michael Flynn case.

This comes after revelations that the DOJ not only had evidence they hid from Flynn, but that his own son was being used against him to force him to plead to something he didn’t do.

April 27, 2020 letter to Barr: "After that June 2018 letter, my staff and I met with Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein where he resisted congressional oversight and suggested that Congress should be satisfied with the facts described in the plea agreement." 3/3 pic.twitter.com/Nf4KDnqw8O

— Jason Foster (@JsnFostr) April 28, 2020

The above letter is a demand to current AG Barr to go ahead and unseal the records so Congress can see exactly what took place. Rosenstein, who deftly managed to play the middle throughout the Mueller ordeal, has often been held up by some conservatives as just “doing his job,” unworthy of criticism. In reality, it looks as if he was just as entrenched as the rest who’ve been exposed. Given his role at the time, he knew exactly what his own department did to Flynn and was continuing to do regarding his case.

Yet, he sought to protect the institution instead, something that’s become a concerning pattern among many, many people within these agencies. Current FBI Dir. Christopher Wray has shown the same penchant, consistently seeking to cover for the bureaucracy rather than take the blow torch to it that it needs. By comparison, James Comey also constantly talked about protecting the FBI as well. Regardless of how connected any of these people truly were, they all had (or still have in the case of Wray) the same instinct. In short, being company men over the rule of law.

In the case of Rosenstein, you almost have to respect the way he’s managed to manipulate his way into the good graces of both sides. This is the same guy who talked about wearing a wire to entrap the President, yet you’ll still find many on the right defending him because he put the Mueller investigation in place. My suspicions of his motives and actions are more cynical.

The real question is whether Barr stops the cycle. He has the power to not only get answers here, but totally drop the case against Flynn. The evidence we now have says both those things need to happen. There is no excuse for Barr not to do the right thing here. He needs to give Grassley what he’s asking for and it’s time to pull back the prosecutors on the Flynn case.