Rosenstein says, in retrospect, he would not have signed Page warrant application

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said on Wednesday that he would not have signed off on a final warrant application of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page if he had known the information that would be in a watchdog report.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked Rosenstein if he, in retrospect, would have signed off on the final renewal of the Page warrant application knowing what he knows now.

“No, I would not,” Rosenstein told members of the Judiciary Committee.

Rosenstein, who resigned from the Justice Department last year, signed off on the final warrant application into Page.

He was interviewed as part of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on the Page applications, where he found 17 significant errors and omissions in the initial warrant applications and subsequent follow-ups.

Horowitz’s report found that Rosenstein and other department officials “did not have accurate and complete information at the time they approved them.”

Asked if his decision to say he would not have signed the warrant renewal application in retrospect was because the FBI left out exculpatory evidence, Horowitz replied “among other reasons” and added that he “relied on what I understood to be in the application.”

Rosenstein is testifying before Congress for the first time since stepping down from the Justice Department last year.

It’s the first public hearing stemming out of Graham’s probe into “Crossfire Hurricane,” the name of the FBI probe into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign.

The investigation has sparked fierce tensions on the Judiciary Committee, where Democrats believe Graham is using his gavel to probe President Trump’s political enemies.