Rosenstein will meet with House lawmakers

WA S HING TON» Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to speak privately with lawmakers after reports that he had discussed secretly recording President Donald Trump.

A person familiar with the situation said Rosenstein agreed to the meeting during a call Thursday with the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte. The Virginia Republican said Friday he was working out details with the Justice Department for a closeddoor session.

“There are many questions we have for Mr. Rosenstein, including questions about allegations made against him in a recent news article,” Goodlatte said 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 Rosenstein for a private meeting and said lawmakers would subpoena Rosenstein if he refused. He said the goal of the questioning was to make Rosenstein explain his alleged comments about the president.

But the source said Rosenstein had agreed to a meeting in upcoming weeks even before that tweet. The person said the conversation with lawmakers was not described to Rosenstein as a hearing or an interview. Rosenstein is also to meet next week with 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 Rosenstein part of a Republican effort to undermine Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.