Rod Rosenstein

Sworn in on April 26 2017, he has been saddled with a leading role in the firing of an F.B.I. director, called to answer for the shifting explanations of a White House in chaos and ultimately moved to name a special counsel now investigating the president himself. Mr. Rosenstein was confirmed 94 to 6 by the Senate last month. He and his wife, Lisa Barsoomian, a former prosecutor who later worked as a lawyer for the National Institutes of Health and took time off to raise their daughters, live in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Md., in a brick raised ranch house. Mr. Rosenstein grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, in Lower Moreland, Pa., the son of Robert and Gerri Rosenstein. His father ran a small business and his mother worked as a bookkeeper. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Rosenstein went to Harvard Law School, where he edited the Harvard Law Review and got his degree in 1989. In 1990, Mr. Rosenstein began his decades-long career at the Justice Department, starting as a trial lawyer in the public integrity section of the criminal division in Washington, and within a few years moving to the deputy attorney general’s office. He was later tapped to join the team of prosecutors working under Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel, on the Whitewater investigation into President Bill Clinton’s business dealings. In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated him to be Maryland’s United States attorney. Mr. Rosenstein stayed there for 12 years, throughout the Obama administration and until last month.