Trump-harassed US deputy AG Rosenstein quitting
Rod Rosenstein, the US deputy attorney general may have decided to resign before President Donald Trump sacks him, multiple reports said Monday.
The CNN reported Rosenstein heading to the White House to meet Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly.
The Hill.com, quoting an Axios report also said the deputy attorney-general may have decided to head to the exit door before President Trump fires him.
The Hill.com said: “A source with direct knowledge told Axios that he is planning to step down because “he’s expecting to be fired.”
Reports of Rosenstein’s verbal resignation comes days after The New York Times reported that he proposed secretly recording conversations with Trump and discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
Rosenstein reportedly brought up the proposals after Trump fired former FBI director James Comey in the spring of 2017, according to the Times. Rosenstein has denied the report.
Trump in a Monday interview left the door open to firing Rosenstein.
“I haven’t gotten all the facts, but certainly it’s being looked at in terms of what took place,” Trump said in response to a question about firing Rosenstein on WTAM radio’s “Geraldo in Cleveland” on Monday.
“If anything took place and I’ll make a determination sometime later, but I don’t have the facts.”
It is not clear yet how Rosenstein’e exit will affect the work of special prosecutor Robert Mueller, investigating Russia’s meddling in US elections of November 2016, in favour of Trump.
