--- title: James Comey Fired: Rod Rosenstein to Brief U.S. Senate description: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is set to brief all members of the U.S. Senate on the recent firing of FBI Director James Comey. canonical: https://time.com/4779469/rod-rosenstein-trump-russia-senate/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-15T17:51:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T08:07:33.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Deputy Attorney General Will Brief Senators on James Comey's Firing og:description: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is set to brief all members of the U.S. Senate on the recent firing of FBI Director James Comey. og:url: https://time.com/4779469/rod-rosenstein-trump-russia-senate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cbee17476049a96/6988cd568e060109dc46a5c8/gettyimages-681770208.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Nominees for Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, and Rachel Brand nominated for Associate Attorney General og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Deputy Attorney General Will Brief Senators on James Comey's Firing twitter:description: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is set to brief all members of the U.S. Senate on the recent firing of FBI Director James Comey. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cbee17476049a96/6988cd568e060109dc46a5c8/gettyimages-681770208.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Will Brief Senators on James Comey's Firing by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:07 AM UTCPublished: May 15, 2017 5:51 PM UTC  During a confirmation hearing Rod Rosenstein nominated for Deputy Attorney General and Rachel Brand nominated for Associate Attorney General appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Tuesday March 7, 2017\. The Washington Post—The Washington During a confirmation hearing Rod Rosenstein nominated for Deputy Attorney General and Rachel Brand nominated for Associate Attorney General appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Tuesday March 7, 2017\. The Washington Post—The WashingtonThe Washington Post—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:07 AM UTCPublished: May 15, 2017 5:51 PM UTC Deputy Attorney General [Rod Rosenstein](http://time.com/4777259/rod-rosenstein-justice-trump-russia/) is set to brief all members of the U.S. Senate on the [recent firing of FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4775430/the-comey-misfire/?xid=homepage). Rosenstein was invited to brief the Senate by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. A McConnell spokesperson said the briefing on Thursday will be classified. Rosenstein has found himself at the center of the backlash over Comey’s sudden firing following a [memo he wrote ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/comey-fbi-memo-rod-rosenstein.html)recommending Comey’s dismissal. The White House initially said Rosenstein’s memo, along with a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, led to the firing, but Trump later said he would have fired Comey regardless of their recommendation. In his memo, Rosenstein said he could not defend Comey’s actions during the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. > [](https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/864169416761769984) Rosenstein is a [27-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Justice](http://time.com/4777259/rod-rosenstein-justice-trump-russia/), though he had largely been unknown to the wider public prior to Comey’s firing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4779469/rod-rosenstein-trump-russia-senate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4779469/rod-rosenstein-trump-russia-senate/"},"headline":"Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Will Brief Senators on James Comey's Firing","datePublished":"2017-05-15T17:51:37.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T08:07:33.000Z","description":"The Deputy Attorney General will brief the Senate on FBI Director James Comey's firing on Thursday","url":"https://time.com/4779469/rod-rosenstein-trump-russia-senate/","keywords":["justice","Senate","James Comey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cbee17476049a96/6988cd568e060109dc46a5c8/gettyimages-681770208.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cbee17476049a96/6988cd568e060109dc46a5c8/gettyimages-681770208.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nominees for Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, and Rachel Brand nominated for Associate Attorney General","caption":"Nominees for Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, and Rachel Brand nominated for Associate Attorney General","creditText":"The Washington Post—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice/","name":"justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4779469/rod-rosenstein-trump-russia-senate/","name":"Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Will Brief Senators on James Comey's Firing"}}]}] ```