Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein set off alarms with a veiled statement about leaks

US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued a statement Thursday night that appeared to reference leaks and urged Americans to be skeptical of “stories attributed to anonymous ‘officials.'” The statement caused alarm for its tone, amid a Trump-Russia investigation that has increasingly riled up President Donald Trump and called into question whether he has attempted to obstruct justice in the matter. Trump allies are reportedly worried they are unable to calm the president’s anguish.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued a stunning statement Thursday night that appeared to be a rebuke of intelligence leaks roundly criticized by President Donald Trump and Republicans at large.

The statement said Americans should think twice “before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous ‘officials.'”

“Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations,” Rosenstein said.

Trump, conservative lawmakers, and his surrogates have made the subject of intelligence leaks their prime focus amid a broad FBI investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The investigation, headed by special counsel Robert Mueller, is examining whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin to help get Trump elected.

In the latest instance of damaging leaks for the Trump White House, on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that Mueller’s investigation was examining whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey.

Changing the Russia narrative

The Trump-Russia investigation has taken multiple twists and turns since it was first launched nearly one year ago. Along the way, news outlets have reported on elements of the Russia probe, often citing unnamed US government officials. Trump has frequently railed against such anonymous sources, at times calling them “fake,” or “phony,” and – as recently as Thursday – referring to the Russia investigation itself as a “witch hunt.”

Trump surrogates have followed the president’s line of criticism, which has propagated across cable news and conservative media outlets.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions decried such leaks in Senate testimony he gave on Tuesday. He said during his opening statement: “These false attacks, the innuendo, and the leaks, you can be sure, will not intimidate me.”

Nevertheless, the tone of Rosenstein’s statement sparked some pointed questions and analysis on social media:

Pursuing leakers

Trump administration officials have vowed to pursue people who leak information to reporters. One of the first examples of that came last week, when a 25-year-old NSA contractor named Reality Winner was charged with leaking top secret information to journalists.

Trump at one time called Comey, who he fired last month, a “leaker” after the former FBI director testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that he shared with a friend a memo he wrote documenting an encounter with Trump.

That friend, a Columbia professor, shared the memo – which revealed Trump’s apparent attempts to sway the FBI’s Russia investigation – with The New York Times. Comey said he believed that, once public, the memo would prompt the appointment of a special counsel

It did. Robert Mueller was appointed to oversee the investigation soon after. Trump has continued to condemn it and, earlier this week signaled that he might fire Mueller, a move that political observers – including some Trump loyalists – say would only make things worse for the president.

Read Rosenstein’s full statement below:

WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein today issued the following statement:

“Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous ‘officials,’ particularly when they do not identify the country – let alone the branch or agency of government – with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated. Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations.”

Foto: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a rally with supporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa, September 28, 2016. source REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Aly Song/File Photos

An increasingly isolated, volatile president

By some accounts, Trump’s behavior has become increasingly volatile as the Mueller-led Russia investigation expands. Politico’s Josh Dawsey on Thursday painted a stark picture of Trump’s preoccupation with the matter:

“Trump, for months, has bristled almost daily at the ongoing probes. He has sometimes, without prompting, injected “I’m not under investigation” into conversations with associates and allies. He has watched hours of TV coverage every day – sometimes even storing morning news shows on his TiVo to watch in the evening – and complained nonstop.”

Neither Trump, nor his associates, have been formally accused of any wrongdoing, but Trump’s public and private grumbling, according to Republican allies, could ultimately do more harm than good.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said of Trump last weekend: “You may be the first president in history to go down because you can’t stop inappropriately talking about an investigation that if you just were quiet would clear you.”