President, Rosenstein delay their meeting

WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s fateful meeting with President Donald Trump over the future of his job has been pushed to next week.

In a statement around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, the White House said Trump “spoke with Rod Rosenstein a few minutes ago and they plan to meet next week.” The statement said the two men did not want to do anything that might affect the congressional hearing over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

The move was expected. Trump said Wednesday he hoped to postpone a planned Thursday meeting and keep Rosenstein in his job — even amid reports that the deputy attorney general last year suggested using a wiretap to monitor the president or invoking a constitutional amendment to force him from office.

Rosenstein has disputed those reports, which were based in large measure on what former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe alleged in contemporaneous memos about the conversation.

Trump watched the Supreme Court hearings during the day and was to visit his Trump International Hotel in the evening for a fundraiser.

The postponement marks a de-escalation of a conflict that Monday seemed certain to end with Rosenstein leaving the Justice Department, injecting uncertainty into the special counsel investigation of whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election. But Rosenstein is still not out of the woods.

The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for McCabe’s memos, as well as other materials related to the Russia investigation. Conservative Republicans signaled Thursday that they expect Rosenstein will testify soon before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees.