Trump to meet with Rosenstein on Thursday

by Jordan Fabian and Morgan Chalfant - 09/24/18 1:01 PM ET

President Trump will meet with Rod Rosenstein on Thursday, the White House said Monday, leaving the deputy attorney general’s future in limbo amid reports of his possible ouster.

The White House issued the statement after hours of confusion about Rosenstein’s job status triggered by a visit to the executive mansion, where the No. 2 Justice Department official reportedly expected to be fired or would resign.

“At the request of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he and President Trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday in a statement.

{mosads}”Because the President is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, D.C.,” she added.

As of early afternoon, Rosenstein remained in his position, but it is unclear if he will survive Thursday’s high-stakes meeting with the president.

There has been broad speculation about the future of Rosenstein’s job after The New York Times reported on Friday that the deputy attorney general suggested secretly taping the president last year and recruiting Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office for being unfit.

Rosenstein has aggressively denied the report as inaccurate.

In an interview with Geraldo Rivera that aired early Monday, Trump said he did not have “all the facts” about the reports, but said he would make a “determination” about the deputy attorney general’s future.

“I don’t want to comment on it until I’ve got all the facts. I haven’t gotten all the facts,” Trump said. “We will make a determination.”

Rosenstein’s removal would likely create havoc in Washington, potentially roiling the special counsel’s Russia investigation, which Rosenstein currently oversees as a result of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s recusal.

Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller last May to spearhead the probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, after Trump abruptly fired former FBI Director James Comey.

Trump has consistently criticized both Sessions and Rosenstein over the probe, which he views as a political “witch hunt” against him.

Updated at 1:33 p.m.