White House Says Trump Will Meet With Rosenstein Thursday
*By Christian Smith*
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reportedly offered his verbal resignation to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on Monday but was told to wait for the president. As of Monday evening, he still has a job ー for now.
Rosenstein's undetermined fate will have consequences for Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, said Jonna Spilbor, a former prosecutor.
"I think it is going to affect the Mueller investigation in a good way for all of those who think that this investigation has been one long run-on sentence that we need to put a period at the end of," Spilbor said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
Several reports suggested Rosenstein would either resign or be fired Monday ー following an explosive piece in The New York Times last week that he had considered secretly taping conversations with the president and discussed soliciting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would start impeachment proceedings. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Trump will meet with Rosenstein on Thursday after the president's return from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
In the event that Rosenstein is fired, a replacement might re-invigorate the Russia probe, Spilbor said.
"The replacement for Rod Rosenstein will say, 'Ok, you've got 30 days,' ー let's pick an arbitrary number ー 'Give me my report because at the end of that 30 days, I'm going to decide if you live or die,'" Spilbor said.
The Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel on May 17 of last year to lead an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Multiple Trump campaign officials have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from bank fraud to obstruction of justice, but no charges related to Russian collusion have been filed ー which is why Spilbor believes the investigation is dragging.
"The investigation has been going on far too long and with far too few results. Why do we keep it going?" Spilbor said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-rosensteins-possible-doj-departure-could-impact-the-russia-investigation).
Matt Hayden, vice president of govtech solutions at Exiger and a former assistant secretary of cyber at Department of Homeland Security, joined Cheddar to discuss the surprise phone call initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Joe Biden, ahead of January security talks about the rising tensions over Ukraine. "We're hoping to hear that we're able to talk about the aggression and the leadup of the Ukrainian militarization," Hayden said. "But we're also looking to hear is how the Kremlin leveraged their talking points to try to test their negotiation stance with the United States leading into this January 10th meeting."
The No Surprises Act begins implementation on January 1, 2022. The legislation is meant to curb the practice of unexpected billing for care from providers the patient was unaware were out-of-network from their insurance. Patricia Kelmar, director of health care campaigns for U.S. PIRG joined Cheddar to describe the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars charged to unsuspecting patients and how things will change under the new law. "If we are picking an in-network doctor and an in-network hospital, we should not see those added costs from anesthesiologists, radiologists, scrub-in surgeons," she said. "The other area it protects you is in air ambulances — not ground ambulances, unfortunately — but the helicopters or the airplanes you might need to transport you in an emergency situation."
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladmir Putin are expected to have another conversation surrounding escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joined Cheddar's Ken Buffa to discuss the ongoing tensions and why Putin's request for a conversation with Biden comes now. "This is very serious. This is the worst security crisis we had since the collapse of the Soviet Union," Cohen told Cheddar.
Stocks closed mixed on Wednesday, but two indexes - the Dow and the S&P 500 - ended the session with a new record. Akshata Bailkeri, Equity Analyst at Bruderman Asset Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she says there is a consensus for robust consumer spreading in 2022, especially as the Omicron variant is proving to be milder than other COVID-19 strains.
John Quelch, Dean of Miami Herbert Business School, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the retail giant is acting in accordance to President Biden's new law banning goods from China's Xinjiang region. Quelch also elaborates on the importance of China in Walmart's overall strategy.
