[MAJOR UPDATE] – Rod Rosenstein is meeting with Trump on Thursday to discuss it…

by The Right Scoop

*** MAJOR UPDATE:

So it sounds like Rosenstein hasn’t fully resigned yet:

The White House issued this statement:

* * *

– PREVIOUS REPORTING –

Axios has a breaking report out just now claiming that Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned from his position as Deputy AG:

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by President Trump, according to a source with direct knowledge.

Per a source close to Rosenstein: “He’s expecting to be fired,” so plans to step down.

Background: Rosenstein talked last year invoking the 25th Amendment and wearing a wire during Trump meetings, the N.Y. Times’ Adam Goldman and Michael S. Schmidt reported last week. He denied both allegations.

I’m working on getting more on this story and will update soon…

UPDATE: Trump told Geraldo this morning that “it is being looked at” when asked about firing Rosenstein.

Via the New York Times:

During the interview, Mr. Trump declined to say whether he might fire Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, after a report in The New York Times that Mr. Rosenstein last year suggested secretly recording the president to demonstrate the chaos in the administration and raised the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

The Justice Department has said that Mr. Rosenstein was joking when he talked about taping the president, a version in conflict with others who described his comments. Mr. Rosenstein said that he currently sees “no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”

Advisers have sought to keep Mr. Trump from firing Mr. Rosenstein, at least until after the midterm elections in November, for fear of a backlash. Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Mr. Rosenstein supervises the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

“I don’t want to comment on it until I get all the facts,” Mr. Trump said when asked if he would fire Mr. 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.”

Not sure if Rosenstein had heard Trump say this or not, but I see people on Twitter pointing to this.

Also the AP just reported this on Twitter:

Per their own sources. It sounds like they might be behind the ball on this one, but it does sound like this report that he resigned might be true.

BIG UPDATE: Bloomberg is reporting that the White House accepted Rosenstein’s resignation!

Rod Rosenstein’s offer to resign as deputy attorney general has been accepted by the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reports.

Amazing.

And here’s more…

The exact timing of the resignation is unclear, but he isn’t expected to be in job after Monday, according to another person familiar with the matter. The move comes after reports that Rosenstein suggested to colleagues last year that he would secretly record conversations with President Donald Trump.

Wow. Sounds like he’s resigning effective immediately.

UPDATE:

Steve Vladeck says that Solicitor General Noel Francisco would be the one to take over on the Russia investigation until the Senate confirmed a new Deputy AG:

MINOR UPDATE: Catherine Herridge concurred with the fact that Francisco would take Rosenstein’s place. Further, she said Francisco is seen as ‘conservative’ and ‘more in line with Trump’.

UPDATE: Bloomberg is reporting that Rosenstein is resigning because of the reporting from last week on his spying:


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