Rosenstein is expected to be out as soon as today
The Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man who appointed Robert Mueller as the special prosecutor to investigate Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential race has reportedly resigned. Multiple, media outlets, led by Axios is reporting Monday that Rosenstein verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly. The outlet reported that he did so “anticipation of being fired by President (Donald) Trump.”
However, other media outlets are reporting that Rosenstein was being fired by President Donald Trump through Chief of Staff General Kelly. The two men will be meeting at the White House today where it will be clear what is going on here.
“He’s expecting to be fired,” a source close to Rosenstein told Axios. The conversation of his firing or resignation came after a Friday story in the The New York Times reported that Rosenstein suggested last year that he secretly record Trump to “expose the chaos consuming the administration” and discussed “recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit.”
It is very important to point out that Rosenstein denied the report and stated that the NYT story did not point out that any conversation bout evoking the 25th Amendment was done in a sarcastic way.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco would as the next highest Senate-confirmed Justice Department official in line, would become the person in charge of the Mueller investigation would drop to him.
It did not take long for a buzz to start on Capitol Hill on the future of Rosenstein, the man who stands between President Trump and Mueller.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand warned that Mueller’s probe needs additional protection in light of Rosenstein’s possible departure.
“The Senate must step up to protect the Special Counsel immediately,” she said in a tweet. “We must pass the bipartisan bill to protect the Mueller investigation. The American people deserve answers about Russian interference in our democracy.”
According to Bloomberg Mueller has charged 25 Russian people and companies for election interference. He also has won guilty pleas and cooperation agreements from people around Trump, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Mueller is pursuing the possibility that people close to Trump colluded with representatives of Russia as well as whether Trump conspired to obstruct justice, inquiries the president has denounced as a “witch hunt.”
