Rosenstein meeting may be delayed
Trump: Would prefer not to fire deputy AG
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he may delay a meeting with Rod Rosenstein because of Thursday’s concurrent hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Trump also told reporters he would prefer not to fire Rosenstein, and that the deputy attorney general has told him he did not discuss invoking the 25th Amendment last year in a bid to remove him from office.
“He said he never said it – he doesn’t believe it,” Trump said during a news conference at the United Nations. “He was very nice and we’ll see.”
Trump said “I would certainly prefer” not to fire Rosenstein, but he did not make a commitment one way or another before meeting with him face-to-face. In discussing the Rosenstein and Kavanaugh events, Trump again denied any involvement in Russian efforts to influence the 2016 elections and again disputed claims by numerous women that he has committed sexual assault.
“I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me,” Trump said.
The president initially set his meeting with Rosenstein for Thursday, the same day that the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing on the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“I don’t want to get in the way of that very important Supreme Court pick,” Trump said.
The Judiciary Committee plans to hear from Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of a sexual assault while in high school. Trump, who has defended Kavanaugh at length, said he did not want to miss Ford’s testimony.
Trump scheduled the meeting with Rosenstein to discuss his professional fate.
He summoned Rosenstein to the White House on Monday, three days after the New York Times reported that last year the deputy attorney general discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to seek the president’s removal from office. That meeting ended with Rosenstein still in his role and another meeting scheduled for Thursday.