Rod Rosenstein

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

As expected, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is officially leaving.

 In a resignation letter to President Donald Trump, Rosenstein said he will leave his post May 11, the Associated Press reports.

Whitey Bulger

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The then-warden of a prison where James “Whitey” Bulgar was confined said he believes the Boston gangster “wanted to die.”

“Quite frankly, I think he wanted to die,” Charles Lockett, the Florida penitentiary’s former warden, told NBC News in an exclusive interview.

“I think whatever issues he had, he had come to peace with them.”

Bulger, 89, was beat to death inside his cell on Oct. 30, 3018, just hours after he was transferred to a West Virginia prison. The transfer came after the wheelchair-bound ex-mob boss threatened a Florida prison nurse who suggested he see an outside heart doctor.

No one has been charged in his death.

Lockett, who retired in late December, spoke out for the first time, saying he doesn’t believe the death was the fault of prison officials.

It’s a tragedy, but I don’t think anyone was deficient in their duty,” Lockett said.

Lockett opened up about his personal feelings for Bulger.

“He killed a lot of people, but he wasn’t a bad old guy,” Lockett said. “Every Friday, I would walk that entire penitentiary and I would see him and he would speak to me. He was a nice, respectable guy, the murderer that he was.”

When a nurse told Bulgar he should be taken to a local hospital to see a heart specialist, the former mob boss lashed out, Lockett said.

“She pressed him to go see the doctor, and he got mad about it,” Lockett said. “He told her point blank, ‘I know people. I still have connections back home.’”

AG William Barr testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee fired back at Attorney General William Bar for trying to change the proposed format of his testimony on the Russia investigation this week.

“The witness is not going to tell the committee how to conduct its hearing, period,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., told CNN on Sunday.

Barr warned committee Democrats that he may not testify to the committee on Thursday unless the format changes.

In addition to allowing five minutes of questioning for each member of the committee, Nadler proposed a second round of questions for both sides to each question Barr for 30 minutes.

Barr has opposed the additional round of questioning, CNN first reported.

The most contentious issue involves the Mueller report and Barr’s four-page summary of it, which Democrats and some others have criticized as one-sided.

Barr also is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The committee’s chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Barr must answer questions about the four-page summary and how it measures up to the full report.

“Well, he gave a four-page summary. Does the report support his summary? Does the report actually indicate there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians?” Graham said during a “Face the Nation” interview Sunday on CBS.