Comey associate: Rosenstein and FBI director will quit if Trump goes through with DOJ investigation demand

Writing on Twitter, a confidante of former FBI Director James Comey predicted high level non-compliance and resignations at the FBI and the Justice Department if President Donald Trump makes good on a Twitter threat to demand an investigation of both agencies on Monday.

Trump made a stunning announcement on Sunday, issuing a proclamation on Twitter -- of all places -- complaining about an FBI informant who was tracking presidential campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos in 2016.

The president tweeted, "I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!”

Responding to the threat, Benjamin Wittes -- who writes for Lawfare and was privy to Comey's notes on meeting with Trump before they were released -- predicted chaos at the Justice Department and the FBI if Trump goes through with what Wittes called, "a nakedly corrupt attempt on the part of the President to derail an investigation."

In a series of tweets, Wittes provided some perspective and predicted that FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would quit rather than bend to the will of the president.

"I normally ignore presidential tweets. This one requires attention, because it could genuinely produce a crisis with the Justice Department and the FBI. Here’s an explanatory thread that may (or may not) be useful," Wittes began.

"The President in this tweet announces that he will tomorrow formally demand of the Justice Department a specific investigation—to wit, one about whether the DOJ and FBI spied on the Trump campaign and if the Obama administration demanded such action of them," he continued before conceding, "There is no doubt that he has the constitutional authority to make this demand."

He then got down to how he thinks it will be received, over a series of tweets that can be seen below in their entirety.