Secretly taping Trump a question
Deputy attorney general talked of it after Comey firing
The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Donald Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office for being unfit.
Rosenstein made these suggestions in the spring of 2017 when Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director plunged the White House into turmoil. Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office,
and revelations emerged that Trump had asked Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide.
Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president’s dismissal of Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Rosenstein was caught off guard when Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used.
Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Trump and about the 25th Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and FBI officials. Several people described the episodes, insisting on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The people were briefed either on the events themselves or on memos written by FBI officials, including Andrew Mccabe, then the acting bureau director, that documented Rosenstein’s actions and comments.
None of Rosenstein’s proposals apparently came to fruition. It is not clear how determined he was about seeing them through, though he did tell Mccabe that he might be able to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security and now the White House chief of staff, to mount an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment.
The extreme suggestions show Rosenstein’s state of mind in the disorienting days that followed Comey’s dismissal. Sitting in on Trump’s interviews with prospective FBI directors and facing attacks for his own role in Comey’s firing, Rosenstein had an up-close view of the tumult. Rosenstein appeared conflicted, regretful and emotional, according to people who spoke with him at the time.
Rosenstein disputed this account.
“The New York Times’ story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he said in a statement. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman also provided a statement from a person who was present when Rosenstein proposed wearing a wire. The person, who would not be named, acknowledged the remark but said Rosenstein made it sarcastically.
Yet according to the others who described his comments, Rosenstein not only confirmed that he was serious about the idea but also followed up by suggesting that other FBI officials who were interviewing to be the bureau’s director could also secretly record Trump.
Mccabe, who was later fired from the FBI, declined to comment. His memos have been turned over to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, in the investigation into whether Trump associates conspired with Russia’s election interference, according to a lawyer for Mccabe. “A set of those memos remained at the FBI at the time of his departure in late January 2018,” the lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich, said of his client. “He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos.”
Days after ascending to the role of the nation’s No. 2 law enforcement officer, Rosenstein was thrust into a crisis.
On a brisk May day, Rosenstein and his boss, Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation because of his role as a prominent Trump campaign supporter, joined Trump in the Oval Office. The president informed them of his plan to oust Comey. To the surprise of White House aides who were trying to talk the president out of it, Rosenstein embraced the idea, even offering to write the memo about the Clinton email inquiry. He turned it in shortly after.
A day later, Trump announced the firing, and White House aides released Rosenstein’s memo, labeling it the basis for Comey’s dismissal. Democrats sharply criticized Rosenstein, accusing him of helping to create a cover story for the president to rationalize the termination.