https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6202247/Deputy-attorney-general-Rod-Rosenstein-RESIGNS-Trump-fire-him.html?ITO=applenews
[size=34]Chaos at the White House: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein DOESN'T resign and isn't fired over plans to wiretap Trump and use 25th Amendment to oust him – but ends up attending Cabinet meeting instead[/size]
- Rosenstein was said to quit Monday amid concerns Trump would fire him
- Rosenstein is in route to White House on Monday morning
- Noel Francisco, the solicitor general, is set to inherit Rosenstein's oversight role on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's expansive Russia probe
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions' chief of staff Matthew Whitaker will serve as acting deputy attorney general
- Trump spoke to a fired-up crowd in Springfield, Missouri, on Friday night
- The president told the crowd: 'Just look at what is being exposed' in Justice
- 'We have great people in the Department of Justice. ... But you've got some real bad ones. You've seen what's happened at the FBI. They're all gone,' he said
- But there's a lingering stench and we're going to get rid of that also', he added
- Follows reports Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wanted to record him
- Claims have also surfaced that Rosenstein discussed the 25th Amendment
- He has strongly denied making any attempt to oust the president
- The audience also broke out in chants of 'Kavanaugh' as the Supreme Court nominee faces sexual assault allegations
By DAVID MARTOSKO AND EMILY GOODIN FOR DAILYMAIL.COMPUBLISHED: 10:55 EDT, 24 September 2018 | UPDATED: 12:53 EDT, 24 September 2018
- [email=?subject=Read%20this:%20Chaos%20at%20the%20White%20House:%20Deputy%20Attorney%20General%20Rod%20Rosenstein%20DOESN%27T%20resign%20and%20isn%27t%20fired%20over%20plans%20to%20wiretap%20Trump%20and%20use%2025th%20Amendment%20to%20oust%20him%20%E2%80%93%20but%20ends%20up%20attending%20Cabinet%20meeting%20instead&body=Chaos%20at%20the%20White%20House%3A%20Deputy%20Attorney%20General%20Rod%20Rosenstein%20DOESN%27T%20resign%20and%20isn%27t%20fired%20over%20plans%20to%20wiretap%20Trump%20and%20use%2025th%20Amendment%20to%20oust%20him%20%E2%80%93%20but%20ends%20up%20attending%20Cabinet%20meeting%20instead%0A%0AFollowing%20a%20flurry%20of%20reports%20Monday%20that%20Rod%20Rosenstein%20would%20head%20to%20the%20White%20House%20to%20tender%20his%20resignation%2C%20the%20deputy%20attorney%20general%20turned%20up%20to%20attend%20a%20routine%20Cabinet%20meeting%20instead.%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-6202247%2FDeputy-attorney-general-Rod-Rosenstein-RESIGNS-Trump-fire-him.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top%0A%0A%0AMost%20Read%20Articles%3A%0A%0ABrett%20Kavanaugh%20DENIES%20second%20sexual%20misconduct%20allegation%3A%20Yale%20classmate%20of%20SCOTUS%20nominee%20claims%20he%20%27exposed%20himself%20to%20her%20in%20the%20early%201980s%20without%20consent%20at%20a%20drunken%20dorm%20party%27%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-6199903%2FBrett-Kavanaugh-hit-SECOND-sex-misconduct-allegation-Yale-classmate-claims-exposed-himself.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0AA%20kiss%20and%20a%20whispered%20%27I%20love%20you%27%20for%20the%20woman%20who%20helped%20him%20turn%20it%20all%20around%3A%20Tiger%27s%20girlfriend%20Erica%20Herman%20celebrates%20with%20the%20golfing%20legend%20after%20his%20astonishing%20comeback%20victory%C2%A0%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-6200151%2FTiger-Woods-girlfriend-Erica-Herman-celebrates-legend-win-five-years.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0ATiger%20roars%20again%3A%20Tearful%20Woods%2C%2042%2C%20wins%20his%20first%20tournament%20for%20FIVE%20years%20after%20injuries%20left%20him%20unsure%20if%20he%20would%20ever%20swing%20a%20club%20again%20and%20celebrates%20with%20a%20kiss%20as%20he%20takes%20the%20Tour%20Championship%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-6199219%2FTiger-Woods-verge-capping-comeback-win.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0A]e-mail[/email]
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Following a flurry of reports Monday that Rod Rosenstein would head to the White House to tender his resignation, the deputy attorney general turned up to attend a routine Cabinet meeting instead.
Rosenstein's head was thought to be on the choppping block following a spate of negative press revolving around alleged plots to wiretap President Trump and use the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a lever to force him from office.
A handful of media outlets, led by Axios, reported that Rosenstein had toldWhite House Chief of Staff John Kelly that he was leaving his post in anticipation that Trump would swing the axe.
'He's expecting to be fired,' a source told the news website Axios.
Bloomberg News reported that Kelly, who spoke with Trump on the phone before the president's lunch in New York City, had accepted Rosenstein's resignation.
But within an hour the Justice Department's second-in-command was attending a previously scheduled Cabinet meeting in the West Wing, sitting in for a traveling Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Rosenstein denied a New York Times report last week that he suggested secretly recording the president in 2017 to provide arationale for declaring him unfitr to serve in the Oval Office.
If he were to leave the administration, Solicitor General Noel Francisco would inherit Rosenstein's role overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's expansive Russia probe.
The rest of Rosenstein's duties, however, were reportedly set to go to Sessions' chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, who would serve as acting deputy AG.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein leaving his home Monday morning
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Rosenstein was headed to White House to meet with Chief of Staff John Kelly
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United States Solicitor General Noel Francisco would oversee the Russia probe; Department of Justice Chief of Staff Matt Whitaker would serve as acting deputy AGA federal law called the Vacancies Act directs the president to fill power vacuums in executive branch agencies when officials quit or die – at least until a Senate-confirmed replacement can take over.
Trump's options, however, would be limited to the list of officials that the U.S. Senate has vetted and confirmed to their current positions.
Francisco could bring pluses and minuses to the acting deputy attorney general role.
He was the one-man Supreme Court wrecking ball who persuaded the Supreme Court to uphold Trump's country-specific travel ban.
But he also stood firm when Republicans in Congress threatened him with impeachment and removal for refusing to hand over Justice Department documents that lawmakers believed would cast doubt on the Mueller probe's origins and motives.
Francisco is also a former partner in the law firm Jones Day, which Trump retained for many years in his pre-political days.
The DOJ would be skipping over another more senior official to put Francisco in charge of supervising the Mueller probe, a move that’s likely to raise some eyebrows among Democrats in Washington.
Edward O’Callaghan was appointed acting principal associate deputy attorney general in April, but the Trump administration’s position is that he can’t serve in two temporary ‘acting’ roles at the same time.
California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris urged federal lawmakers on Monday to step between Trump and the Mueller probe, demanding a new law that would prevent the president from ordering his ouster.
‘The Senate must pass legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller TODAY. Republican leaders must allow it to be voted on,’ Harris tweeted.
‘We can no longer afford to wait. This is a matter of preserving the rule of law.’
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Trump had not committed to Rosenstein's fate during a Friday morning radio broadcast.
'I don't want to comment on it until I get all the facts,' Trump told Geraldo Rivera when asked about firing Rosenstein. 'I haven't gotten all the facts, but certainly it's being looked at in terms of what took place. If anything took place and I'll make a determination sometime later, but I don't have the facts.'
He also said it was Sessions who hired Rosenstein.
'I was not involved in that process. They hire their own deputies and people who work in the department,' Trump said.
The president is in New York for meetings at the United Nations General Assembly. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at a briefing for reporters, declined to answer questions on Rosenstein, saying check with the White House.
Officials there denied there have been any conversations about invoking the 25th Amendment against the president.
'I have never been in the White House when conversations like that have happened. I'm not aware of any cabinet members even talking about that. It is completely and totally absurd. No one is questioning the president at all. If anything we're trying to keep up with him,' UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said.
'No one discussed with me any conversations on the 25th Amendment,' Pompeo added, 'so you can now say there are two senior administration officials that said your question is ludicrous.'
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Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein departs the Supreme Court in April with his family, after arguing his first case before the court
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US Ambassador Nikki Haley (R), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (C) and national security adviser John Bolton (L) give a press briefing in New YorkDemocrats were quick to pounce.
'Saturday Night Massacres don't need to happen on a Saturday. If President Trump fires DAG Rod Rosenstein or forces his resignation, he will come one giant leap closer to directly meddling with the Special Counsel’s Russia investigation,' wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy on Twitter.
Saturday Night Massacre refers to a series of events on Saturday, October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal. Then-President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; Ruckelshaus refused and resigned. Nixon then ordered Solicitor General Robert Bork to fire Cox. Bork considered resigning, but did as Nixon asked.
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Democrats were quick to react to the news
Sen. Harris urged the Senate to pass legislation to protect MuellerThe liberal leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington pounced, raising the specter of improper interference by the president.
'[F]or the president to fire or force the resignation of a law enforcement official in order to derail an investigation into the president ... [would be] obstruction of justice, plain and simple,' the group's executive director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement.
He said that if Trump made a move to pink-slip Rosenstein, it 'must ultimately prove to be an unsuccessful effort to prevent a full investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related obstruction of justice.'
On Friday night, Trump slammed the 'bad ones' in the Justice Department following reports Rosenstein wanted to wear a wire to secretly record the president and discussed invoking the 25th Amendment.
Speaking to a fired-up crowd at a rally in Missouri on Friday night, he said there was a 'lingering stench' in Justice 'and we're going to get rid of that'.
He was in Springfield supporting Republican Senate nominee Josh Hawley, who is running against two-term Democratic senator Claire McCaskill.
Hours after the New York Times broke the story, Trump said: 'Just look at what is being exposed in our Justice Department.
'We have great people in the Department of Justice. ... But you've got some real bad ones. You've seen what's happened at the FBI. They're all gone.
'But there's a lingering stench and we're going to get rid of that, too.' [/size]
Subject: Rod Rosenstein Reportedly Resigns As Deputy Attorney General 
Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:49 am
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Follows a Friday NYT report claiming Rosenstein wanted to wear a wire to record the president
