“Rod J. Rosenstein’s departure seemed so certain this week that his boss’s chief of staff told colleagues that he had been tapped by the White House to take over as second-in-command of the Justice Department, while another official would supervise the special counsel probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, people familiar with the matter said.” This intro paragraph manes no sense.
It’s crappy writing.
A. It seems to be missing a few conjunctions here and there.
“departure seemed so certain (FOR) this week..
B. The heavy use of the same Second-Person pronoun “He” is confusing.
“HIS boss’s chief of staff told colleagues that HE had been..
C. The whole mess equals what my English teacher would have called a Run-On sentence. That happens when the writer tries to make the Topic sentence do too many things.
I recognize Run-On sentences because I often make that mistake myself. I forget to take a breath. Front loaded sentences remain out of balance.