Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to speak with congressional Republicans to discuss a report that said he spoke of undermining President Trump.
Rosenstein spoke with House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Thursday evening and agreed to a meeting in a couple weeks, a Justice Department official told the Washington Examiner.
At the root of the issue is a New York Times report published earlier this month that detailed how Rosenstein talked about secretly recording Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to oust the president after FBI Director James 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.”
[Also read: Paul Ryan suggests Rosenstein’s denials about a Trump coup attempt are credible]
In a statement, Goodlatte said the House Judiciary Committee has “many questions” to ask Rosenstein concerning the report.
“As part of the House Judiciary Committee’s joint investigation and oversight responsibilities, we’ve invited Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to come in for a private meeting in the coming weeks. We are working with the Justice Department on details and will relay more information about the meeting soon,” Goodlatte said. “There are many questions we have for Mr. Rosenstein, including questions about allegations made against him in a recent news article. We need to get to the bottom of these very serious claims.”
Should he fail to show, Republicans say there is a plan to take action. “If Mr. Rosenstein fails to show up, we will subpoena him,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., tweeted Friday morning.
Meadows, who was not involved in the conversation between Rosenstein and Goodlatte, added that GOP leadership agreed to hold a “closed door hearing without panel investigating.”
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., tweeted that Republicans have no right to hold a private hearing without Democrats, and said he would insist that Democrats be allowed to participate. “There is no such thing as a ‘closed, privatehearing,” tweeted Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. “I will demand that [House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.] give us access to that meeting.”
Amid the fallout from the Times report, it was reported Monday 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.
Trump was initially set to meet with Rosenstein on Thursday, but the White House announced that the meeting was delayed to next week as a contentious hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh extended into the evening hours.
The president indicated earlier in the week that he would prefer Rosenstein stay. When asked if he is planning to fire Rosenstein on Wednesday night, Trump said no. “I certainly would prefer not doing that,” the president told reporters in New York. “My preference is to keep him.”
Rosenstein oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and any links to Trump campaign officials, and his removal as deputy attorney general could shake up the investigation.
Trump regularly dismisses the probe as a “witch hunt.”
Democrats have warned against the possibility that Trump would fire Rosenstein, with one calling it “a break the glass moment.”
