The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit.
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.
None of Mr. Rosenstein’s proposals apparently came to fruition. It is not clear how determined he was about seeing them through, though he did tell Mr. McCabe that he might be able to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security and now the White House chief of staff, to mount an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment.
The extreme suggestions show Mr. Rosenstein’s state of mind in the disorienting days that followed Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Sitting in on Mr. Trump’s interviews with prospective F.B.I. directors and facing attacks for his own role in Mr. Comey’s firing, Mr. Rosenstein had an up-close view of the tumult. Mr. Rosenstein appeared conflicted, regretful and emotional, according to people who spoke with him at the time.
Mr. Rosenstein disputed this account.
“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.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman also provided a statement from a person who was present when Mr. Rosenstein proposed wearing a wire. The person, who would not be named, acknowledged the remark but said Mr. Rosenstein made it sarcastically.
But according to the others who described his comments, Mr. Rosenstein not only confirmed that he was serious about the idea but also followed up by suggesting that other F.B.I. officials who were interviewing to be the bureau’s director could also secretly record Mr. Trump.
Mr. McCabe, who was later fired from the F.B.I., declined to comment. His memos have been turned over to the special counsel investigating whether Trump associates conspired with Russia’s election interference, Robert S. Mueller III, according to a lawyer for Mr. McCabe. “A set of those memos remained at the F.B.I. at the time of his departure in late January 2018,” the lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich, said of his client. “He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos.”
Rude Roddy says he did not say this but its in the papers so fire him.
Fire his traitorous ass
I’m wondering, does the left EVER have an identifiable source any more? Does the left wing media EVER report anything that does not REEK of a gigantic lie?
@Deplorable me: They cant throw each other under the short bus fast enough. This calls for extra butter, how much longer will it take to declassify the requested docs if he is suddenly canned? We know of the coup attempt already lets just be patient and torture Roddy by making him declassify the documents that will put a noose around his own neck and others.
The failing NYT with all those fake news stories??
Laura I—“fire him today.”
@Richard Wheeler: He now says he was Joking, hahaha sedition and treason what a joke.
I still think we wait til he puts the noose around his own neck with declassification.
@kitt: It’s looking as though this was a McCabe or Mueller leak. Because Rosenstein acknowledged the statement means the demokrats’ comrades at the Slimes weren’t lying for a change. Rosenstein said he made the remarks sarcastically and that Trump should NOT be removed from office based on the 25th Amendment. Prior to Huber’s grand jury, McCabe vowed that if he went down he’d take others with him. Rosenstein has people who were in the room who back his version of what happened and the “anonymous source” has his. Someone is lying. Either way, the coupsters are starting to eat their own. Enjoy the show. It should get better as the noose tightens.
@another vet: 13 coils on a hangmans knot they all have Triskaidekaphobia.
@kitt: Ironically, those wishing to change us from a constitutional republic to a banana republic have a lot to lose because those hangman’s knots you speak of are part of what they use on failed coupsters in banana republics.
another vet Sounds like Mc Cabe is ….taking others down with him…..
@tommy boy: That’s what he said he was going to do. He’s probably singing like a bird to the grand jury.
@another vet:
The only lie is how the media characterizes the discussion. Imagine… a media outlet, someone that is supposed to be protecting the Republic, actively cooperating with seditious forces to destroy it.
Don’t believe RR has acknowledged the statement–not yet. He could be Mr Anon.
If DT believes he SAID IT he’s gotta fire him as his Fox girl Laura I has instructed him to do.
How is media complicit if they accurately reported RR statement that you folks believe he made?