Rod Rosenstein expects to be fired

Our live coverage has concluded — for now. For the latest on Rod Rosenstein, who is due to meet with President Trump on Thursday amid reports he may have offered to resign, see our report on CNN Politics.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine tweeted Monday afternoon that she was “very concerned by reports that Deputy AG Rosenstein will either be fired or forced to resign.”

“The AG made the correct decision to recuse himself from the DOJ investigation into Russia’s attempts to interfere in our elections. The Deputy AG plays a critical role in overseeing the investigation headed by special counsel Mueller,” she said in a follow-up tweet.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Intel Democrat, says that it’s time for Republicans to step up and protect the Mueller investigation with Rod Rosenstein’s fate hanging in the balance

“I think there’s broad bipartisan support to protect the Mueller investigation. That ought to be passed right away,” Warner told reporters

“There’s been a lot of my Republican colleagues along the way who have said if the time comes, they’ll step up. We’ll see later this week if that time comes along,” he added.

“You’ve got the potential, even if Mueller’s not fired, for his budget to be cut back, his investigatory activities to be cut back.”

President Donald Trump speaks with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in New York in May 2018.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein overestimated how angry President Trump would be after the New York Times’ explosive report, a senior administration official told CNN.

Rosenstein offered his resignation to Chief of Staff John Kelly after the story was published last Friday, and met with Kelly on Monday to discuss the matter before speaking to the President.

Rosenstein expected to be fired by Trump Monday, said another source familiar with the case.

While Trump asked associates after the story was published if he should “just fire him (Rosenstein),” he was also skeptical that the information came from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who Trump frequently calls untrustworthy.

Though Trump used to remark that Rosenstein was no ally of his, their relationship has improved in recent months.

[Note: This headline initially said Rosenstein “underestimated” Trump’s anger. It’s been corrected.]

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah in July 2018.

When speaking to reporters Monday, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah warned President Trump not to fire Rod Rosenstein.

“I like Rosenstein, personally,” Hatch said. While the decision was “up to the president,” he added, “I think if he did something like that it would cause a furor that I don’t think we need right now.”

However, Hatch, a close ally of Trump’s, backed up the President when a reporter asked about the potential constitutional repercussions of firing Rosenstein.

“Everything’s a constitutional crisis around here lately, it seems to me,” Hatch responded. “And this president’s been mistreated as far as I’m concerned.”

Noel Francisco during his confirmation hearing as solicitor general in May 2017.

If Rod Rosenstein leaves the Department of Justice, it would spark immediate questions about the long-term job security of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Noel Francisco, the solicitor general and longtime conservative lawyer, would take on oversight of Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He would be asked to sign off on decisions such as issuing subpoenas, the breadth of the investigation, or reviewing Mueller’s report and its submission to Congress.

As solicitor general, Francisco is the Justice Department’s top Supreme Court litigator, and has defended the Trump administration’s positions since his appointment last year.

In a recent case, Francisco argued for presidential authority to remove administrative law judges, seen by some as a potential groundwork for granting presidential power over the special counsel.

Prior to becoming solicitor general, Francisco was a lawyer at Jones Day and was a colleague of White House Counsel Don McGahn, who is set to depart the White House this fall.

President Trump, taking reporters’ questions at the UN, did not say if he’s going to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Instead, he mentioned his planned meeting with Rosenstein.

“I’m going to meet with Rod Rosenstein on Thursday when I get back from all of these meetings, but we’ll be meeting at the White House and we’ll be determining what’s going on. We want to have transparency, we want to have openness, and I look forward to meeting with Rod at that time,” Trump said.

Asked what he would like to do with his deputy attorney general, Trump said, “Well we’re going to have a meeting on Thursday when I get back.” He added, “I spoke with Rod today and we’re going to have a meeting on Thursday when I get back to the White House.”

Watch more:

Just this past weekend, CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Jim Acosta and Gloria Borger reported that Republican allies of the President had urged him to hold off on a purge of Justice Department officials, including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, until Brett Kavanaugh is safely in place on the Supreme Court.

From their report:

Keep reading.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (R) attend the Second Annual Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in Policing at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, September 18, 2018.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered what some might say was an ominous line in a speech in Alabama Monday morning, before news broke that his number two, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, had discussed resigning and was on his way to the White House.

Responding to a long welcoming applause at a public safety conference, Sessions told the crowd:

Sessions was speaking at the Justice Department’s National Public Safety Partnership Symposium where he touted a federal crime reduction program and announced a turnaround in national violent crime statistics.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s car pulled up at the Justice Department just a few minutes ago, after he spent this morning at the White House.

He went through the garage to avoid reporters.

Rosenstein is scheduled to meet with President Trump on Thursday.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders just issued a statement following in response to a number of inquiries about Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s current status.

She writes:

Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said he’s concerned about the fate of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation if Deputy Attorney General leaves the department.

“There is nothing more important to the integrity of law enforcement and the rule of law than protecting the investigation of Special Counsel Mueller,” he said in a statement.

He also pushed back against reports that in the day after FBI Director James Comey’s May 2017 firing, Rosenstein discussed wearing a “wire” to record conversations with President Trump (CNN reported the story citing sources familiar with memos authored by McCabe).

“I had no role in providing information of any kind to the media stories about events following Director Comey’s firing,” McCabe said.

Here’s his full story:

The meeting between Chief of Staff John Kelly and Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein is over, CNN has learned.

We are working on finding out more information but in the meantime a source familiar tells us that Rosenstein is still at the White House attending a principals committee meeting already on the books.

Like his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Rosenstein long has expected that he would leave his post after the midterm elections, according to a source familiar with his thinking. 

For Rosenstein, staying put until early November was considered key to give Special Counsel Robert Mueller more time to try to complete his investigation. 

Rosenstein appeared to initially think his public denials in response to the news reports of his comments last year on recording the president and invoking 25th Amendment would be enough to remain on the job for the time being, according to people familiar with his thinking. 

As CNN reported this morning, Rosenstein and Kelly were in dispute about timing of a resignation.

With a likely departure on the horizon, even before the 2017 comments became public in news reports, Rosenstein has been trying to telegraph what he hopes his legacy would be remembered for. 

A speech at the Justice Department less than two weeks ago, strikes a somewhat defiant tone, given the attacks against the Justice Department and the FBI from the president and his congressional allies:

The first obligation is generic. It imposes a duty to pursue the national interest over any private interest. That applies equally to all government employees.

But the final clause is specific. Everybody recites the same words, but the meaning varies. In order to well and faithfully discharge the duties of “the” office, you need to understand the unique responsibilities of your office. What is the mandate of your agency; what is the mission of your component; and how do you add value?

You need to know what you stand for. In the words of a classic country song by Aaron Tippin, ‘You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.’”

On Friday, Rod Rosenstein and John Kelly met at the White House in the hours after the story broke and Kelly relayed to the deputy attorney general that the denial he issued earlier in the day was not sufficient. Kelly relayed a command to issue a firmer denial, which is how Friday’s second statement came about.

Over the course of the last several days Rod Rosenstein spoke to John Kelly and said that he would resign. A second source says Rosenstein said he was “thinking” of resigning.

The two decided to work it out on Monday, according to the sources. One source said that the White House held off because they were dealing with the Kavanaugh situation this weekend. 

There were some matters in dispute including the White House refusing Rosenstein’s conditions regarding the timing of when he would leave on his own terms.

The White House says John Kelly was surprised when Rosenstein called Monday morning to say he is resigning, according to one of the sources.

But Justice officials continue to insist he headed to the White House this morning expected to be fired because he wouldn’t agree to the terms they wanted for his leaving.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expecting to be fired, a source tells CNN, and he is set to meet with John Kelly at the White House soon.