The New York Times is reporting that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested recording President Trump and then trying to get cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to kick Trump out of office.
Rosenstein has denied he said this but note he did not deny he suggested wearing a wire. He did say that there was no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment. A very strategic answer dodging key items he’s being accused of. This was all happening in May of 2017 right after Comey was fired.
Rosenstein denies the NYT claim:
“The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he said in a statement. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.
The New York Times reported:
Mr. Rosenstein made these suggestions in the spring of 2017 when Mr. Trump’s firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director plunged the White House into turmoil. Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, and revelations emerged that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide.
Mr. Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president’s dismissal of Mr. Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Rosenstein was caught off guard when Mr. Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used.
Mr. Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Mr. Trump and about the 25th Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and F.B.I. officials. Several people described the episodes, insisting on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The people were briefed either on the events themselves or on memos written by F.B.I. officials, including Andrew G. McCabe, then the acting bureau director, that documented Mr. Rosenstein’s actions and comments.
The entire report by The New York Times here.
Sara Carter tweeted out support for Trump firing Rosenstein:
The evidence in these memos from fired FBI Deputy Dir Andrew McCabe about DAG Rosenstein is enough for @realDonaldTrump to fire him and launch an investigation. Who was Rosenstein speaking to and what were they saying? Once again it goes beyond resistant…a word comes to mind
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) September 21, 2018
This could be the straw that broke the camel’s back for President Trump who should fire both Rosenstein and Sessions:
To me, this is the Trump administration using the NYT to their advantage, to help justify the firing of Rosenstein and to halt the Mueller investigation. If so, it's unbelievably brilliant. Does anyone doubt that Rod is now gone before October? #USPolitics https://t.co/3LxCS6Rk7M
— Matthew Ross 🎙️✍️🇨🇦 (@MatthewEvolves) September 21, 2018