Rosenstein Denies That He Discussed Recording Trump, Invoking 25th Amendment

Then-FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe, right, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, second from left, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have been political targets of President Trump.

By Carrie Johnson, Philip Ewing

September 21, 2018

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein denied an explosive report on Friday that he discussed secretly recording President Trump at the White House and that he might seek to recruit members of the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment in order to remove Trump.

Rosenstein called the story "inaccurate and factually incorrect."

He continued: "I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment."

A New York Times story cites, among other reporting, memoranda by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about his dealings with the White House and other Justice Department officials.

An attorney for McCabe acknowledged on Friday that McCabe did write those memos, but that he has given them to special counsel Robert Mueller and that he doesn't know how the New York Times may have gotten them.

"Andrew McCabe drafted memos to memorialize significant discussions he had with high level officials and preserved them so he would have an accurate, contemporaneous record of those discussions," said his lawyer, Michael Bromwich. "He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos."

The report about Rosenstein follows months of ill will between Trump, his Republican supporters and the leadership of the Justice Department. Trump said earlier this week that "I don't have an attorney general," underscoring his antipathy toward Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Rosenstein also has been a political target for his role in appointing Mueller and for approving surveillance of Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign.

Antagonists in the House also have targeted Rosenstein as they have tried to investigate the Justice Department's investigation of the Russian attack on the 2016 election.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; House intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif.; and other have scourged Rosenstein over what they call his foot-dragging in producing documents related to the early phases of the probe.

Trump and Republicans say the Russian investigation is the product of "biased" conspirators deep within federal law enforcement and they have picked away at a number of targets at all levels.

The FBI and Justice Department leaders also have been censured from within. McCabe was fired after an internal investigation found he "lacked candor" in terms of dealing with investigators. Former FBI Director James Comey — fired by Trump — was upbraided by a big internal report for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.