No. 2 at Department of Justice hasn’t been fired — yet
WASHINGTON — White House officials said Monday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will stay in his job for now, following a chaotic morning of speculation that he was about to resign — a development that would have further destabilized a Justice Department already under siege because of the Russia investigation.
Job insecurity has been a regular feature of Rosenstein’s life for more than a year, as the president and his allies have publicly attacked him over special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and whether any Trump associates conspired with those efforts.
But his hold on his job never seemed as tenuous as Monday morning, after reports last week that Rosenstein, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, had suggested secretly recording the president and mounting an effort within the Cabinet to remove him from office. Rosenstein has disputed the accuracy of those accounts, but his denials left plenty of room for interpretation.
Now, President Donald Trump plans to meet with Rosenstein on Thursday to discuss the situation — and the deputy attorney general’s fate remains uncertain.
Multiple officials said that during conversations over the weekend between and among White House and Justice Department officials, Rosenstein indicated that he was considering resigning. During some of those conversations, Rosenstein said his resignation might be warranted to end the controversy, according to people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about internal deliberations.
Some Trump aides had counseled the president against quickly firing Rosenstein, arguing that such a move could be exploited politically by the Democrats and would be better done after the midterm elections.
Friday night, Rosenstein spoke with White House counsel Donald McGahn, according to a person familiar with the discussions. In that conversation, Rosenstein said he was willing to resign, but McGahn urged him to wait until they could talk further Monday morning, this person said.
By Sunday, some senior Justice Department officials had concluded that Rosenstein was about to be out of his job and began planning for Solicitor General Noel Francisco to take over supervision of the Russia probe. As part of that contingency plan, Matthew Whitaker, chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was slated to take over the other responsibilities of the deputy attorney general, according to the people familiar with the discussions.
When Rosenstein went to the White House on Monday morning, senior Trump advisers expected him to resign, according to several advisers. A Justice Department official, however, said Rosenstein had no intention of resigning but went there expecting to be fired.
As often happens in government, the two sides heading for a high-stakes confrontation decided instead to hold another meeting.
“At the request of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he and President Trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Because the President is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, D.C.”
After Rosenstein met with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, he proceeded to a meeting of senior administration officials, the first indication that, at least for the moment, he was staying on the job.
Rosenstein appointed and has been overseeing Mueller, and ousting the deputy attorney general would probably raise concerns that the president or his allies were kneecapping the Russia investigation.
One Trump adviser said the president has not been pressuring Rosenstein to leave. The person said Rosenstein had expressed to others that he should resign because he “felt very compromised” and the controversy hurt his ability to oversee the Russia inquiry, said a person close to Trump.