US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who chose Special Counsel Robert Mueller to lead the Russia interference probe and protected him from political intrusion, announced Monday he was stepping down. In a letter to President Donald Trump, Rosenstein said he would depart on May 11, after more than two turbulent years as the second highest-ranking official in the Department of Justice. The veteran Republican prosecutor, 54, stunned the country on May 17, 2017 when he named an independent lawyer to take on the Russia probe after Trump fired FBI director James Comey.
