‘I get on very well with him’: Trump won’t sack chief of Russia probe
Rosenstein was reported to have wanted to wiretap US president in early period of his administration
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump yesterday said he has no plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whose future at the Justice Department has been steeped in drama, as the two prepared to talk during a trip to Florida on Air Force One.
Mr Trump and Mr Rosenstein were scheduled to meet late last month following reports the latter wanted to wiretap the president early in his tenure. The president postponed the meeting amid an all-consuming confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
As he left the White House, Mr Trump said he had a “very good relationship” with Mr Rosenstein. Asked if he planned to fire him, Mr Trump said: “No, I don’t.”
“I didn’t know Rod before,” he said. “I’ve gotten to know him, and I get along very well with him.”
Mr Trump was travelling to Orlando for an afternoon address to the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual convention. It is not unusual for senior Justice Department officials to join the president at such events.
Mr Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation of Russian election interference led by special counsel Robert Mueller, offered to resign last
month after reports that he contemplated secretly recording conversations with the president.
The Justice Department began preparing for a future without him: Matt Whitaker, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s chief of staff, would take over as deputy attorney general, and Noel Francisco, the solicitor general, would supervise the Russia probe.
As the plan was taking shape, Mr Rosenstein went to the White House expecting he would be fired but wound up staying in his job.
Two days later, Mr Trump declared: “My preference would be to keep him and to let him finish up.”
White House officials have said the president is unlikely to fire Mr Rosenstein before the midterm elections.
Mr Trump’s speech to the gathering of police chiefs comes on the heels of a new FBI report that the number of homicides and other violent crimes dipped slightly in the United States last year, suggesting the rise of violent crimes in recent years may be ending.
The increase in violence in 2015 and 2016 prompted alarm nationwide, including from Mr Sessions, who warned of “the rising tide of violent crime”.
Experts have cautioned against reading too much into annual data, while others have pointed to the dramatic decline in crime over the past
purely ceremonial. Judge Kavanaugh took the two required oaths privately at the court on Saturday, letting him begin work right away.
He has already hired four law clerks, all women, and is expected to be on the bench today when the court hears arguments.
President Barack Obama’s two Supreme Court appointees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, didn’t participate in oath ceremonies at the White House. They took their oaths at the court in ceremonies that were televised live.
In 2009 when Sotomayor was sworn in, administration officials said Mr Obama wanted to forgo a White House oath as a sign of the new justice’s independence.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump yesterday said he has no plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whose future has been steeped in drama.
Mr Trump and Mr Rosenstein were scheduled to meet late last month following reports the latter wanted to wiretap the president early in his tenure. The president postponed the meeting amid the all-consuming confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
As he left the White House, Mr Trump said he had a “very good relationship” with Mr Rosenstein.
Asked if he planned to fire him, Mr Trump said: “No, I don’t.” “I didn’t know Rod before,” he said. “I’ve gotten to know him, and I get along very well with him.”
Mr Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation of Russian election interference led by special counsel Robert Mueller, offered to resign last month after reports that he contemplated secretly recording conversations with the president.
White House officials have said the president is unlikely to fire Mr Rosenstein before the midterm elections.