Trump spares Rosenstein until Thursday
Deputy attorney general to learn his fate during face-to-face showdown
WASHINGTON— After a long weekend spent wondering if he should resign or would be fired, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein still has his job — for now.
U.S. President Donald Trump gave Rosenstein a three-day reprieve pending their face-toface White House showdown on Thursday. That’s when the man who oversees the Trump-Russia investigation will respond to reports that he had discussed secretly recording the president and possibly using constitutional procedures to remove him from office.
The revelation that Rosenstein last year had broached the idea of taping the president touched off a dramatic weekend of conversations with the White House in which he offered to one official to resign and confided to another that he was considering doing so, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Even as he took issue with the reports, Rosenstein arrived at the White House on Monday expecting to be fired, according to another person who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Instead, after he met with chief of staff John Kelly and spoke by phone to Trump himself, questions about his future were effectively tabled until the personal meeting on Thursday.
The position of deputy attor- ney general is ordinarily a relatively low-visibility one in Washington, but Rosenstein has assumed outsized significance given his appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The commotion about Rosenstein’s future adds to the turmoil roiling the administration, just six weeks before midterm elections with control of Congress at stake.
In addition to dealing with the Mueller investigation, the White House is also struggling to win confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the wake of sexual-misconduct allegations.
Questions about Rosenstein’s future, long simmering, took on new life Friday with a New York Times report that during May 2017 discussions with FBI and Justice Department officials he suggested the idea of secretly recording Trump — remarks his defenders insist were merely sarcastic — and of invoking the Constitution to have the Cabinet consider removing him from office.
Rosenstein was summoned to the White House on Friday evening for a conversation with chief of staff Kelly after which he issued a denial that was even sharper in tone than the one the Justice Department sent out hours earlier.
In conversations over the weekend, he told Kelly he would resign, though the terms were unclear. He also told White House Counsel Don McGahn that he was considering doing so.
McGahn told Rosenstein they should discuss the issue Mon- day, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
He met again with Kelly on Monday and spoke by phone with Trump. Rosenstein was captured by photographers leaving the White House after his meetings Monday and was led out by Kelly.
“At the request of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he and President Trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories,” White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
“Because the President is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, D.C.”