Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Proposed Secretly Recording Trump and Removing Him from Office: NYT
Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein suggested last year that he secretly record President Donald Trump to expose the turmoil unfolding in the White House, and discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office for being unfit, according to a new bombshell report from The New York Times.
According to the Times, Rosenstein, 53, made the proposals in the spring of 2017 after Trump’s controversial firing of then-FBI director James Comey.
“Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, and revelations emerged that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide,” the Times reports.
Rosenstein then made the suggestions to other Justice Department and FBI officials, according to the Times, which cited several people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous. The sources say they’ve been briefed on Rosenstein’s actions, or on memos written by FBI officials, including then-acting director Andrew G. McCabe.
It does not appear that any of Rosenstein’s suggestions were carried out, the Times says. But the newspaper noted that Rosenstein allegedly told McCabe that he might be able to convince Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security and now the White House chief of staff, to go along with a plan to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Rosenstein has disputed the Times‘ report.
“The New York Times’ story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he said in a statement to the newspaper. “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.”
The White House did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
A spokesman for McCabe, who was fired this year, declined to comment.
A Justice Department spokeswoman gave the Times a statement from a person who said they’d heard Rosenstein suggest wearing a wire. The person, who was not named, said Rosenstein was being sarcastic when he made the remark.
Other sources said Rosenstein was serious about the idea and had also suggested that other FBI officials secretly record Trump, 72.
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The report on Rosenstein comes after The New York Times published an op-ed earlier this month from an anonymous author claiming to be a senior Trump official. The author described a “resistance” within the Trump administration seeking to “thwart” the president’s “worst inclinations.”
The op-ed also claimed that Cabinet officials had discussed invoking the 25th Amendment.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement calling on the author of the op-ed to resign.
“The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States,” Sanders said. “He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.”
