Jeffrey Rosen takes the reins of a justice department under pressure

The Justice Department is also overseeing a series of surveillance investigations that have caught the president’s personal attention, including a criminal investigation into the president-elect’s son, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and an ongoing review by Special Counsel John Durham of the actions of federal investigators during the 2016 election campaign.

The remaining few weeks of Trump’s tenure are likely to be dominated by these and other issues, which could put Rosen at the center of numerous political battles with the White House. While Barr harshly defended Trump’s agenda and priorities as head of the Justice Department, he rejected the president’s calls to appoint a special attorney to investigate election fraud and allegations against young Biden, and tried isolate ongoing criminal investigations from political pressure.

The White House did not respond to any requests for comment.

It was Mr. Trump’s anger at the revelation that Barr worked to prevent a federal investigation into Hunter Biden from becoming public before the election that led to his early departure, officials said.

Rosen, 62, has maintained a relatively low profile since he was confirmed as deputy attorney general last year, but has been heavily involved in politically sensitive civil litigation that has been followed by the Trump administration, including several lawsuits against critics of Trump who have provoked disagreements with the agency.

He spent most of his career in the private sector and several other government agencies, including serving as No. 2 in the Department of Transportation before becoming an assistant prosecutor. He has no previous experience as a prosecutor.

Current and former officials say Mr. Rosen has a good relationship with the president, who they say can expect his incumbent new attorney general to do things Mr. Barr was unwilling to do.

“He’s a constant manager behind the wheel … even if he’s taking the wheel during a storm,” said Brendan Groves, a career Justice Department official who advised Rosen until January 2020. He asked where he could take out Mr. Rosen. line when it came to the president’s orders, Mr. Groves called him a “person of principles” and said, “I’m sure he has some red lines, but I don’t know what those would be.”

Trump remains focused on the idea that the election results were fraudulent or manipulated, a complaint not supported by his own administration’s investigative agencies and refuted by numerous state rewards and ballot audits.

The president has privately criticized several top advisers for not doing enough to defend him in his opinion and has increasingly sought the advice of conspiracy advisers in recent weeks. At a disputed Oval Office meeting last week, the president discussed the possibility of appointing Conservative attorney Sidney Powell as a special attorney to investigate his allegations of election fraud. Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told Ms. Powell on Monday that she would not be named to any position, according to people familiar with the conversation. Giuliani did not respond to any requests for comment.

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Chief Executive Patrick Byrne, who attended last week’s oval office meeting with Ms. Powell, said she and her team drafted a 20-page note at the president’s request on allegations of foreign interference in the 2020 elections. The note, shared by Mr. Byrne calls for Trump to “immediately establish a working group – under the authority of a special White House attorney – to take all legal action” to determine the “true legal votes.”

Byrne said he and others have not been able to get the note, which at one point was titled “Foreign Interference Results from the Kraken Team,” according to file metadata, to Mr. Trump. Ms. Powell has said she planned to “release the Kraken,” a reference to a legendary sea monster that symbolizes the evidence she claims to have of election fraud.

In addition to the president’s demands for election fraud investigations, Mr. Rosen could have to contend with the political consequences of pardons Trump advisers have said the president is considering before leaving office, including those for members of the his family and for Mr. Giuliani.

On Tuesday, Trump granted 15 pardons, including a former campaign adviser and several former military contractors convicted of killings of Iraqi civilians during the war. He issued 26 more pardons on Wednesday, including former campaign president Paul Manafort, longtime adviser Roger Stone and his father-in-law’s father Charles Kushner.

The president’s anger at Mr. Barr was built up for months before he left, as Trump unsuccessfully agitated Durham to publish a report on his findings and the department declassified documents related to Russia’s investigation. said the helpers. But advisers had urged the president to keep Mr Barr in his job, noting that there was no clear candidate to succeed him in attitude and treat the Justice Department’s affairs differently, a civil servant said. administration.

Earlier this month, after Mr. Barr told the Associated Press that the Justice Department had found no evidence of election fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election, the president and attorney general had what an official described it as a heated and controversial meeting. When the meeting ended, however, aides were left believing that Mr. Barr would remain in office for the remainder of Trump’s term, the official said.

But when the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Barr had worked to keep quiet about the existence of a federal investigation into Hunter Biden before the election, Trump was lawful, an official said, telling aides he believed that Mr. Barr had essentially stolen the election he made and referring to a poll that suggested that some people who voted for Mr. Biden would not have done so if they had known the investigation.

Days later, after another meeting promoted in part by White House lawyer Pat Cipollone, the president has tweeted a copy of Mr. Barr’s resignation letter, who applauded Trump’s policies.

—Aruna Viswanatha contributed to this article.

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus to [email protected] and Byron Tau to [email protected]