MANILA - A Filipino-American could oversee the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election if U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein leaves his post.
Rosenstein is set to meet President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss his future.
If Rosenstein leaves his job, the investigation would fall to US Solicitor General Noel Francisco, the fourth-ranking official at the Justice Department and the next Senate-confirmed official in line.
Some legal experts have said Francisco would have to recuse himself because his former law firm, Jones Day, represented the Trump campaign.
If that were to happen, the next in line to oversee the special counsel would be Steven Engel, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Francisco's credentials include serving as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, working in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration and in Bush's legal team in the 2000 Florida recount.
The Republican lawyer is the son of Nemesio Francisco, a Filipino who immigrated to Oswego, New York to become a doctor.
According to Syracuse.com, Francisco rarely talked about his father's journey from the Philippines.
But he cited his father as an example for having the courage to accept hardships in life when he delivered the 2013 commencement address in Oswego High School. --With Reuters
source: news.abs-cbn.com
