Leah Millis/Reuters
President Donald Trump apparently knew about the indictment of 12 Russian nationals as part of the Mueller probe yet still referred to the investigation as a "witch hunt" on Friday.
- Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein expects to be fired Monday, according to multiple reports.
- Axios reported that he verbally resigned Monday in a conversation with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by the president.
- This comes just days after The New York Times reported Rosenstein had discussed wearing a wire to secretly record the president and invoking the 25th Amendment.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein expects to be fired by President Donald Trump on Monday, according to multiple reports. Axios reported Monday morning that he met with White House chief of staff John Kelly and verbally resigned in anticipation of being fired by the president.
Multiple reports said he was en route to the White House.
The stunning development comes just days after The New York Times reported Rosenstein had discussed wearing a wire to secretly record the president and invoking the 25th Amendment.
Trump said during a Monday morning interview with conservative commentator Geraldo Rivera that he had not yet made a decision on whether to get rid of Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
"I don't want to comment on it until I get all the facts," the president said of the reports about Rosenstein's conduct. "If anything took place, and I'll make a determination sometime later."
Rosenstein first raised the question of the 25th amendment and considered wearing a wire in the spring of 2017, The Times said, citing sources in the Department of Justice and FBI who were present in conversations with Rosenstein or were briefed on memos that former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe wrote about Rosenstein.
But the Washington Post later reported that Rosenstein's comment about wearing a wire was made sarcastically, after McCabe pushed for the DOJ to investigate Trump.
Rosenstein issued a broad denial of the Times' reporting, calling the story "inaccurate and factually incorrect," and said in a statement to the Times that, based on his "personal dealings" with the president, there is no basis to remove him from office.
Rosenstein also claimed that the anonymous sources cited in the story are motivated by anti-DOJ sentiment and their own "personal agenda."
Immediately following the publication of the Times story last Friday, some of Trump's favorite far-right influencers, including Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro, called for Rosenstein's immediate firing. Other Republicans, including lawmakers in Washington, urged caution and discouraged the president from taking the report seriously.
"When it comes to President @realDonaldTrump..... BEWARE of anything coming out of the @nytimes," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted.
Trump has regularly targeted both Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions since the special counsel Robert Mueller was first tapped last May to oversee the FBI's investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, as well as possible obstruction of justice committed by the president when he fired FBI Director James Comey last year.