Rosenstein expects to be fired after report he discussed taping Trump

justice department

Rosenstein was headed to the White House Monday, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein headed to the White House Monday and expects to be fired after an explosive report last week that he proposed wearing a wire to record President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

The New York Times also reported Friday that Rosenstein had discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Rosenstein and his allies have fiercely disputed the account.

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Rosenstein’s removal would send shockwaves through the Justice Department and raise questions about the supervision of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and whether any Trump aides helped. Rosenstein has overseen Mueller’s investigation.

The terms of Rosenstein’s possible exit from his job were not immediately clear Monday. The person familiar with his thinking said Rosenstein had not submitted a resignation, but other news organizations reported that he has considered quitting.

Mueller’s office declined to comment Monday. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rosenstein’s exit under pressure if he is fired or quits — just six weeks before the November midterm elections — could signal the president is seeking to curtail the reach of Mueller’s investigation. Rosenstein’s next-closest subordinate, associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, departed the Justice Department earlier this year and has yet to be replaced. That leaves Solicitor General Noel Francisco as the next in line to supervise the Mueller probe.

Trump has long called the investigation a “witch hunt,” but several of his key associates — including former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg — are now cooperating with federal prosecutors in their investigation of the president, his business practices and his 2016 White House campaign.

Rosenstein took on the Mueller probe after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself last year over concerns that he had misled Congress during his confirmation hearings about his contacts with Russian officials during the campaign.

Since then, Trump has accused Rosenstein, a Republican, of having a conflict of interest in overseeing the investigation because he signed off on a 2016 application to conduct surveillance of former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Trump has also harped on Rosenstein’s authorship of a memo criticizing former FBI director James Comey in 2017, an action that Mueller is now investigating as a potential attempt by the president to obstruct the FBI investigation into his campaign.

“Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter),” Trump tweeted in mid-April. “No Collusion, so they go crazy!”

GOP lawmakers have complained that Rosenstein would not hand over some sensitive documents relating to the FBI’s investigation into 2016 election interference, arguing the documents might imperil ongoing law enforcement work. Reps. Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) even filed articles of impeachment in July over the standoff.

Trump allies — from one-time campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to former chief strategist Steve Bannon — have long urged the president to dismiss Rosenstein, who also authorized the raid in April on Cohen’s home, office and hotel room. That move was a prelude to the Trump lawyer pleading guilty this summer to a slate of eight charges of tax evasion, financial fraud and campaign finance violations. Cohen has since met with Mueller’s investigators in a bid to reduce his expected prison sentence.

Rosenstein said in congressional testimony last year that he would refuse to fire Mueller unless the special prosecutor — a former FBI director who worked for both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama — had engaged in some misconduct.

“I would follow the regulation. If there were good cause, I would act. If there were no good cause, I would not,” Rosenstein told the House Judiciary Committee last December.

To date, Mueller’s investigation has netted guilty pleas from Manafort and his former business partner Rick Gates, ex-Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and one-time Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. The special counsel has also indicted a dozen Russian military officials who were accused of hacking into two Democratic Party computer systems to roil the 2016 presidential election.

While the special counsel probe has no deadline, Comey told St. Louis Public Radio earlier this month that Mueller’s cooperation agreement from Manafort “may represent that we’re in the fourth quarter.”

While Trump has agitated for the Mueller probe to shut down, former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said Rosenstein’s possible exit could have unintended consequences.

“A change in supervisors could actually prolong things,” he told POLITICO recently.

Friends of Rosenstein’s say the No. 2 DOJ official has long been prepared to lose his job.

“Rod is not foolhardy. He’s not oblivious. But he also has developed really thick skin about his own job and a very fatalistic approach about his job,” said James Trusty, a former DOJ official who worked under Rosenstein when he was U.S. attorney in Maryland.

Rosenstein’s mantra during the Trump administration, Trusty added, was: “When it happens, it happens. But until it happens, I’m going to do my job.”