Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is reportedly expected to resign today, even going to so far as to verbally resign to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by President Trump, according to some reports.
The development follows last week’s New York Times (NYT) article detailing how Rosenstein has talked about working to invoke the 25th Amendment to have President Donald Trump removed from office, as well as and wearing a wire during meetings with the President to expose alleged chaos within the administration. Rosenstein has denied both allegations.
Justice Department officials said on Monday morning that the deputy attorney general was on his way to the White House and expecting to be fired. Over the weekend, Rosenstein is said to have called a White House official and said he was considering quitting, and a person close to the White House said he was resigning, according to the NYT.
As the top Justice Department official overseeing the investigation into Russia collusion on part of the 2016 Trump campaign, Rosenstein has been a fierce defender of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, repeatedly refusing to consider firing him despite accusations by President Trump and his allies that the investigation is part of a “deep state” Democratic conspiracy to undermine his term in office.
If President Trump accepts the resignation from Rosenstein, Solicitor General Noel Francisco would assume oversight of the Russia investigation. The acting deputy attorney general would be Matthew Whitaker, the chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, until a permanent replacement is named.
Furthermore, Rosenstein’s presumed departure has prompted questions of whether President Trump has other people lined up on the chopping block. For example, Sessions has been repeatedly bashed by the President on Twitter as well as in the news. Last week, Trump was quoted as saying, “I have no attorney general.”