Trump says he has no plans to fire Rosenstein
President Donald Trump said Monday that he has no plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whose future at the Justice Department has been steeped in drama, relaying that the two had a “good talk” while traveling together on Air Force One to an event in Florida.
“The press wants to know: What did you talk about?” Trump said at the outset of a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual convention in Orlando as he thanked Rosenstein for being there. “We had a good talk.”
Trump and Rosenstein were scheduled to meet late last month following reports that Rosenstein wanted to wiretap the president early in his tenure. But Trump postponed the meeting amid an all-consuming confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
As he left the White House on Monday en route to Florida, Trump told reporters that he has a “very good relationship” with Rosenstein. Asked by a reporter if he plans to fire him, Trump said, “No, I don’t.”
“I didn’t know Rod before,” Trump said. “I’ve gotten to know him, and I get along very well with him.”
After Air Force One landed, a White House spokesman said Trump and Rosenstein had talked for about 30 minutes, but gave no details. Trump later told a reporter the conversation was “great.”
Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation of Russian election interference led by special counsel Robert Mueller, offered to resign last month after reports 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 oversee the Russia probe.
As the plan was taking shape, Rosenstein went to the White House expecting he would be fired but wound up staying in his job. At a news conference two days later, Trump declared: “My preference would be to keep him and let him finish up.”
Administration officials have told The Washington Post Trump is unlikely to fire Rosenstein before the midterm elections, but officials increasingly expect both he and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to leave the department after the election.
On Capitol Hill, Trump’s closest allies still have Rosenstein in their crosshairs. He is scheduled to be questioned later this week behind closed doors by the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees, as part of a probe into the FBI and Justice Department’s conduct during investigations of Trump associates’ suspected links to Russia and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The joint panel has already spoken with Rosenstein once, in a fiery public hearing during which Rosenstein defended the department against Republicans’ accusations of political bias.