Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein responded to the impeachment threats raised against him today by saying that the Department of Justice “is not going to be extorted.”

Rosenstein, who made the remarks while speaking to reporters at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., went on to say that “nobody has the courage to put their name on” the articles of impeachment being discussed against him from members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.

“I can tell you that there are people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time,” Rosenstein said. “And I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.”

“We’re gonna do what’s required by the rule of law, any kind of threats that anybody are not gonna’ effect the way we do our job,” he added.

The official also joked that the Freedom Caucus “can’t even resist leaking their own drafts” — a quip that suggests Rosenstein isn’t too worried about the threats.

He went on to describe the complicated process that the DOJ has to go through if they are going to pursue prosecution:

“The way we operate in the Department of Justice — if we’re going to accuse somebody of wrongdoing, we have to have admissible evidence, credible witnesses, we need to be able to prove our case in court. We have to fix our signature on the charging document, and that’s not something everybody appreciates.”

As for the reported impeachment papers, the Freedom Caucus documents were called by the group’s chairman, Rep. Mark Meadows, “a last-resort option if the Department of Justice fails to respond” to requests for information on the Trump-Russia investigation, as well as their dive into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

Watch above, via CSPAN.

[images via screengrab]

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