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44 views • October 8, 2018

TRUMP NO PLANS TO FIRE ROSENSTEIN update

Mark Liu
President Donald Trump said on Oct. 8, that he has no plan to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had reportedly offered to resign last month on the heels of a report–which he denies–that accused him of discussing plans to secretly record the president. Trump revealed his intentions regarding the Justice Department's second-highest official, shortly before boarding Air Force One together with Rosenstein en route to Florida. "I didn’t know Rod before, but I’ve gotten to know him, and I get along very well with him," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. The pair spoke for 45 minutes during the flight, after which a White House spokesperson confirmed that the president's plans regarding Rosenstein have not changed. Trump had planned to meet Rosenstein earlier, but postponed the meeting to focus on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump and Rosenstein walked off the plane side-by-side upon landing in Florida. The president said his conversation with Rosenstein went "great." According to White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley, Chief of Staff General John Kelly and acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan were both part of the meeting between Trump and Rosenstein. "They discussed various topics including the International Chiefs of Police event later today, support for our great law enforcement officials, border security, how to better address violent crime in Chicago, and general DOJ business," Gidley said. Trump joked about the media's attention on the topic during his speech at the Chiefs of Police Convention shortly after, with Rosenstein in attendance. "The press wants to know 'what did you talk about.' We had a very good talk I will say. That became a very big story actually folks. We had a good talk," Trump said. The New York Times cited anonymous sources alleging that Rosenstein suggested he would wear a wire to record Trump and discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president. Rosenstein dismissed the report as “inaccurate and factually incorrect.” Days later, several news outlets reported that Rosenstein had offered to resign from his post, but neither the White House nor the Justice Department confirmed the reports. The White House issued a statement hours later saying that Trump and Rosenstein would meet about "recent news stories." That meeting was pushed back, first because of Trump's busy schedule at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and then later due to the Kavanaugh confirmation. "It all comes down to whether he was willing to wear a wire or not," Rep. Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee told Fox News. "If he was willing to wear a wire and secretly record the president, it's someplace that this country has never been before." "I don't know of any time in the history of this country where you had people who are at the top levels of government conspiring to secretly record a president so you can trap the president into being able to go after the 25th amendment to remove the president." The New York Times article cited leaked memos taken by then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte issued a subpoena to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Sept. 27, for the McCabe memos. The committee, which is investigating actions taken by the FBI and DOJ related to the 2016 election, has been requesting the McCabe memos as well as other documents, for months. The list of documents in the Sessions subpoena also includes key documents related to the Russia investigation, including the interviews conducted in relation to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page. It is unclear why Goodlatte issued the subpoena to Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation. Spokespeople for Goodlatte and the Justice Department did not immediately return requests for comment. Goodlatte also invited Rosenstein to meet with the committee privately. "There are m
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