Rod Rosenstein exit statement explains who would take over the Mueller investigation.

While Rod Rosenstein still has his job as deputy attorney general (for now), there is already a plan in place for who would take over after he leaves. The Justice Department’s exit statement for Rosenstein, obtained by Axios (which kicked off Monday’s “is he out or not” frenzy), contains typical D.C. breakup bromides but also, most importantly, lays out who would take over Rosenstein’s two key jobs: running the DOJ day to day and overseeing the Mueller investigation.

The statement, which is from Jeff Sessions, says that his chief of staff, Matt Whitaker, will take over as deputy attorney general but that the solicitor general, conservative stalwart Noel Francisco, will oversee Mueller and the special counsel investigation, serving as “Acting Attorney General for this matter.”

As for when or if this statement will become operational, Axios reports that Rosenstein had offered his resignation verbally (instead of, as the site reported Monday morning, “verbally resigned”) to White House chief of staff John Kelly on Friday and was “working with the White House on the terms of his departure, and the plan was to make it public on Monday.” That plan got fouled up after Axios’ innaccurate reporting, and Rosenstein is remaining in his job at least until a meeting with Trump on Thursday.

The statement, oddly enough, does not contain the word resignation and was sent over to the White House on Monday, Axios reports, but only after the site broke the story that Rosenstein was on his way out.

• Robert Mueller
• Rod Rosenstein
• Jeff Sessions

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