Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told lawmakers during a pair of closed-door meetings that he stands by his memo that was initially used as the reason for former FBI Director James Comey's firing. 
 
 "It is a candid memorandum about the FBI Director's public statements concerning a high-profile criminal investigation," Rosenstein told lawmakers, according to a copy of his opening statement released Friday. "I wrote it. I believe it. I stand by it." 
 
 The memo came under criticism after the White House initially pointed to the document as the justification for Comey's firing last week. President Trump later said he would have fired Comey regardless, although on Thursday he again cited the memo as his main reasoning. 
 
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 Rosenstein added during the closed-door meetings that the document "is not a statement of reasons to justify a for-cause termination." 
 
 "My memorandum is not a finding of official misconduct; the inspector general will render his judgement about the issue in due course," the No. 2 Justice Department official said. ||||| WASHINGTON—A senior Justice Department official on Friday again defended his decision to write a memo that the White House cited as grounds for President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, but he declined to discuss further his role in the dismissal, including who asked him to write the memo. 
 
 In prepared remarks delivered to the House on Friday and the Senate the previous day, Rod Rosenstein said the memo summarized his “longstanding concerns” about Mr. Comey’s public remarks last year on an FBI investigation... ||||| Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, speaking before lawmakers Friday, defended his controversial memo criticizing former FBI director James B. Comey — a document the White House initially used to justify the firing of Comey. 
 
 “Former Department of Justice officials from both political parties have criticized Director Comey’s decisions,” Rosenstein said in an opening statement before the House of Representatives, remarks devoted largely to repeating his charge that Comey mishandled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. 
 
 “It was not just an isolated mistake; the series of public statements about the email investigation, in my opinion, departed from the proper role of the FBI director and damaged public confidence in the bureau and the department,” Rosenstein said. 
 
 “My memorandum is not a legal brief; these are not issues of law,” said Rosenstein, a longtime federal prosecutor. “It is a candid internal memorandum about the FBI director’s public statements concerning a high-profile criminal investigation.” 
 
 The House briefing capped a chaotic week on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers continued to grapple with Comey’s firing and a wave of new reports about President Trump’s behavior and the federal probe of possible collusion between his associates and the Russian government. 
 
 (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post) 
 
 In the days after Comey’s firing, some lawmakers, former Justice officials and people who knew Rosenstein wondered if he had been forced to write the politically charged memo for Trump. But Rosenstein, who was only recently confirmed as the Justice Department’s second-highest ranking official, left no doubt that it was voluntary. 
 
 “I wrote it,” Rosenstein said. “I believe it. I stand by it.” 
 
 “Notwithstanding my personal affection for Director Comey, I thought it was appropriate to seek a new leader,” Rosenstein said. “I wrote a brief memorandum to the attorney general summarizing my long-standing concerns about Director Comey’s public statements concerning the Secretary Clinton email investigation. I chose the issues to include in my memorandum.” 
 
 Rosenstein said he learned on May 8 that Trump was going to fire Comey and the president “sought my advice and input.” 
 
 President Trump told Russian diplomats during a May 10 meeting in the Oval Office that the firing of Comey had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to the New York Times. 
 
 “I just fired the head of the FBI,” Trump said, according to the Times account. “He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” 
 
 Trump also told the Russians, as he has said publicly, “I’m not under investigation.” 
 
 After Rosenstein was nominated by Trump to be deputy attorney general, a friend of Comey’s told the FBI director that he was encouraged by Rosenstein’s nomination and likely Senate confirmation, according to an account of the conversation in the New York Times. 
 
 But Comey did not completely agree with his friend, Ben Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the editor in chief of the Lawfare blog. 
 
 “[Comey] said, ‘I don’t know. I have some concerns. He’s good, he’s solid but he’s also a survivor and you don’t survive that long without making some compromises and I’m concerned about that,” according to the Times account. 
 
 Comey has agreed to publicly testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee sometime after Memorial Day, committee chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) announced Friday. 
 
 [Who is Rod Rosenstein? With Sessions’s recusal, official poised to oversee probe into Russian interference in 2016 race] 
 
 Rosenstein had briefed the full Senate on Thursday at an event that left several key questions unanswered, including what exactly Trump said to Rosenstein when he told him Comey would be fired, and to what degree congressional investigators will maintain access to witnesses and documents given Rosenstein’s appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, a former FBI director, as special counsel. Those issues were not resolved with Rosenstein’s speech to members of the House on Friday. 
 
 He told House members only that he appointed a special counsel to restore Americans’ faith in the Russia investigation, saying that interference in U.S. elections should not be a partisan issue. 
 
 The moment brought applause from most lawmakers present, according to several House members. But Democrats, in particular, left the meeting frustrated that Rosenstein was not more forthcoming with information about Trump’s decision to fire Comey. Several said they learned nothing new from speaking with him. 
 
 Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) described the meeting as a “brief presentation followed by a Q and A. And not a whole lot of A.” 
 
 Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) recalled the “dissonant moment” when Rosenstein refused to say “who had asked him, if anyone had asked him, to write his memorandum.” 
 
 “He said, ‘That is Bob Mueller’s purview,’ and that was puzzling to a lot of us,” said Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. 
 
 Several lawmakers have expressed concerns that the new special counsel investigation may impede the congressional investigations. 
 
 Rosenstein assured House members that the Justice Department would work with members of Congress “to coordinate our parallel efforts” and establish a point of contact for Mueller. 
 
 “You can never get guidance from the executive branch about how Congress is to do something because there’s inherently always going to be tension,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). “Congress is going to want to look over the shoulder of this investigation . . . the executive branch will always try to limit that for fear that it would contaminate a potential criminal investigation for leaks, all the while sometimes leaks occur in the executive branch. So I don’t expect this to be any different.” 
 
 Rosenstein also told the lawmakers that he is “not aware” of any request by the FBI for additional resources for the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 
 
 “Moreover,” he said, “I consulted my staff and acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, and none of them recalls such a request.”
– During meetings with lawmakers Thursday and Friday, Rod Rosenstein stood by the memo that may or may not have been the reason for James Comey's firing, the Hill reports. "I wrote it. I believe it. I stand by it," the deputy attorney general said. However, Rosenstein said the memo wasn't "a finding of official misconduct," nor was it "a statement of reasons to justify a for-cause termination." The White House had used the memo as justification for firing the FBI director, though President Trump later contradicted that, saying he was already going to fire Comey. According to the Washington Post, Rosenstein told lawmakers he already knew Comey was going to be fired before he wrote the memo—though he said the firing "was appropriate." A number of lawmakers were left unsatisfied by their meetings with Rosenstein, who they believe was withholding important information. Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist says it was a Q and A with "not a whole lot of A." And the Wall Street Journal reports another lawmaker described it as a "waste of my time." One of the major questions Rosenstein refused to answer was who, if anyone, asked him to write the memo. He did say Comey never requested more resources for the Russian investigation prior to being fired by Trump, as had been reported.