Deputy AG takes ‘25th’

‘Plot’ to tape, boot Don

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested last year — in what could have been a joke — that he could secretly record President Trump to expose the turmoil in the White House.

And, according to The New York Times, which first reported the story, he discussed asking Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.

Rosenstein (upper inset) made the suggestions in the spring of 2017, in the turbulent days after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the paper reported Friday.

Soon after Comey was sacked over the Russia election-meddling probe, Trump revealed classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office and called the ousted FBI director “a real nut job.”

Rosenstein shot down the Times story in a statement Friday.

“The New York Times’ story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he said.

“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 the story prompted some Trump allies to call for Rosenstein’s firing.

“This is insane,” the president’s son, Donald Jr., wrote on Insta- gram, under a photo of Rosenstein. “We can’t let this farce continue,” he wrote. “I don’t get it, but it has to stop.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was among the Republicans to try to impeach Rosenstein, called on the deputy AG to “prove his innocence.”

Fox News host Laura Ingraham was more blunt: “Rod Rosenstein must be fired,” she tweeted.

At a rally in Springfield, Mo., Friday night, Trump himself did not mention Rosenstein by name — but he made a not-so-cryptic reference to getting rid of the “stench” coming from the Department of Justice.

Trump said that while “ninety-five percent” of those at the DOJ and FBI support him, “You’ve got some real bad ones.” At the FBI, “they’re all gone,” he told the crowd. “But there’s a lingering stench and we’re going to get rid of that, too.”

The Washington Post cited one source who said Rosenstein was only joking about recording the president.

“What do you want to do, Andy, wire the president?” Rosenstein responded, sarcastically, when then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, (lower inset) pushed for an investigation into the commander-in-chief.

McCabe noted the conversation in memos that were apparently leaked to the Times.