Sources: Rosenstein spoke of possible secret Trump taping
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein floated the idea of secretly recording President Donald Trump last year amid law enforcement concerns about chaos in the White House, according to people familiar with exchanges at the time. But one person who was present said Rosenstein was just being sarcastic.
The comments were first reported by The New York Times, which also said Rosenstein raised the idea of using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump as unfit for office. The report, which Rosenstein denied, creates even greater uncertainty for him in his position at a time when Trump has lambasted Justice Department leadership and publicly humiliated both him and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The reported conversation took place during a tense May 2017 meeting involving acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, another frequent target of Trump’s wrath. McCabe was temporarily elevated after Director James Comey was fired, but was himself fired this year. McCabe documented conversations with senior officials, including Trump, in a series of memos that have since been provided to special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his Russia investigation.
The interactions lay bare the conflicts within the FBI and Justice Department early in the Trump administration after Rosenstein, just weeks into his job, wrote a memo about Comey that the White House used as justification for firing the FBI director.
In a statement, Rosenstein called the Times story “inaccurate and factually incorrect.”