There’s talk of an impeachment vote should Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein refuse to testify this week.
Addressing the fallout in recent days related to the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said he and a colleague are ready to make a move in the name of oversight.
“Any member of Congress can call up Rosenstein’s impeachment and it must be voted on in two days,” Gaetz said Monday evening on Fox News. “If we don’t have Rosenstein in the witness chair, [Rep.] Mark Meadows and I are prepared to do just that and keep Congress in town to do the oversight work.” He referred to the use of a privileged motion, which under House rules would require a vote two days after it being filed.
So far the push to get Rosenstein to testify appears to be only talk. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a key ally of President Trump, tweeted earlier in the day that Rosenstein needs to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about reports that emerged last week.
News concerning Rosenstein shook the political landscape Monday when initial reports indicated that Rosenstein had verbally offered his resignation as he expected to be fired. But after visiting the White House, Rosenstein returned to the Justice Department in the early afternoon, still with his job, and a statement from the White House saying he and President Trump will meet Thursday.
This controversy followed a report from the New York Times on Friday that said Rosenstein talked about secretly recording Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to oust the president after Comey was fired in May 2017. Rosenstein has denied considering such actions, and follow-up reports said he was being sarcastic or joking about the wire.
Gaetz said he doesn’t care if Rosenstein did make the comment in jest. “That is an inappropriate thing to do when you’ve got subordinates and colleagues at the Department of Justice in your presence,” he said. “That’s the ecosystem that allows this type of nefarious activity to occur in an administration.”
According to a New York Times report Monday, Rosenstein made up his mind to resign Friday evening, after the reporting emerged on discussions of undermining Trump, due to his concern that he would have to testify about it before Congress.
Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, has felt the heat from the GOP lawmakers before. In July, Jordan and a handful of other GOP lawmakers filed articles of impeachment against Rosenstein for what they said was his defiance of congressional subpoenas and his move to withhold documents. However, the impeachment efforts never came to fruition and never were voted on by the House.
