Politics

Rosenstein Is Expecting To Be Fired

Rod Rosenstein Getty Images/Win McNamee

Saagar Enjeti White House Correspondent
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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expecting to be fired after a report that he discussed secretly recording President Donald Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, according to multiple reports Monday morning and a senior administration official.

A senior administration official told The Daily Caller that Rosenstein had expressed his willingness to resign. The official did not know if the resignation was accepted by the White House. Rosenstein is reportedly going to the White House Monday morning where he is expecting to be fired.

Jonathan Swan of Axios reported that Rosenstein has “verbally resigned” to White House chief of staff John Kelly. CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins reported that an official confirmed that report, though another CNN reporter, Erica Orden, said a source disputed the Axios report.

“Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by President Trump,” Axios said.

Rosenstein’s position became precarious Friday after alleged comments of his from May 2017 surfaced in The New York Times. Rosenstein allegedly floated the idea of wearing a wire into the Oval Office and attempting to wrangle a cabal of cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office.

Trump expressed displeasure with Rosenstein in his first public comments on the matter to Geraldo Rivera Sunday saying “well I think its a very sad story. People are obviously..looking into it. Sad state of affairs when something like that can happen.” The president would not comment on whether Rosenstein should be fired saying “I don’t want to comment on it until I get all the facts. Certainly its being looked at in terms of what took place, if anything took place.”

The Associated Press reported that he is expecting to be fired.

NBC’s Pete Williams reported that reports that Rosenstein will resign are coming from the White House, and that the White House will have to fire him if they want him to leave the administration.