Dem threatens to block deputy attorney general nominee over special prosecutor

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is vowing to block the nominee for deputy attorney general unless he promises to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s reported involvement with the presidential election.

“I’ll use every possible tool to block DOJ Deputy AG nominee unless he commits to appoint independent special prosecutor,” Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted on Sunday evening.

I’ll use every possible tool to block DOJ Deputy AG nominee unless he commits to appoint independent special prosecutor

— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) March 5, 2017

{mosads}The confirmation hearing for the nominee for deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Blumenthal is one of two Democrats on the committee who has urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to return to the panel to explain his conversations with the Russian ambassador.

Sessions announced during a press conference last week that he would recuse himself from any investigations related to Russia’s connection to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Following Sessions’s recusal, focus has turned on secondary leaders within the Department of Justice, potentially including Rosenstein, who may lead the probe into President Trump and his associates’ connections with Russian officials. 

The George W. Bush-appointed U.S. attorney for Maryland is expected to be grilled by the committee’s ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), and Sens. Blumenthal, Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) about how he might handle any such probes into Russia’s election involvement.