Report: Rosenstein spoke of wearing wire with Trump
NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested secretly recording President Donald Trump in 2017 to expose chaos in the White House and to enlist Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove him from office, according to a bombshell news report that rocked the Trump administration Friday afternoon.
But Rosenstein adamantly denied the premise of the New York Times article and called it "inaccurate and factually incorrect."
"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," he said in a statement to Fox News. "But let me clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment."
The White House is already suspicious of some elements within the Justice Department and the FBI, with Trump regularly complaining about the Russia probe, which he calls a "witch hunt." Rosenstein oversees that probe because Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the investigation.
Rosenstein had discussed wearing a "wire" to tape Trump and pursuing his removal from office in meetings and conversations with Justice Department and FBI officials, according to sources cited in the Times report.
This would have been in the tumultuous days after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The president cited, in part, a memo that Rosenstein wrote. That reportedly caught the deputy attorney general off guard.