Rosenstein agrees to meet lawmakers

Private session will be in addition to meeting with president

The Associated Press in a statement. “We need to get to the bottom of these very serious claims.”

GOP Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted Friday that Republican leaders agreed to ask Mr. Rosenstein for a private meeting and said lawmakers would subpoena Mr. Rosenstein if he refused to answer questions. He said the goal was to make Mr. Rosenstein “explain his alleged comments on ‘wiring’ POTUS -- as well as other inconsistent statements.”

But the person familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Mr. Rosenstein had agreed to a meeting in upcoming weeks even before that tweet. The person said the conversation with lawmakers was not described to Mr. Rosenstein as a hearing or an interview. Mr. Rosenstein is also to meet next week with Mr. Trump.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in his own tweet that House Republicans “cannot be left alone in a room with DAG Rosenstein” and that he would demand that House Speaker Paul Ryan grant Democrats access to that meeting.

He called the meeting with Mr. Rosenstein part of a Republican effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel and oversees that investigation.

Mr. Rosenstein’s job as the Justice Department’s No. 2 official had appeared imperiled since a New York Times report last week that said he had discussed possibly recording the president to expose chaos in the White House and invoking constitutional procedures to have the Cabinet remove Mr. Trump from office. The Justice Department issued statements from Mr. Rosenstein meant to deny the report, and released a statement from someone who recalled the recording comment but said it was meant sarcastically.

Mr. Rosenstein headed to the White House on Monday with the expectation that he would be fired. Instead, the White House said he would meet on Thursday with Mr. Trump. That meeting was postponed until next week after the White House said Mr. Trump wanted to focus on a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting him when they were teenagers.