House GOP to invite Rosenstein to testify

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Friday said House GOP leaders have agreed to invite Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to testify in front of Congress.

{mosads}In a tweet, Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, says that Rosenstein will be invited for a “closed door” meeting, adding that if he “fails to show up, we will subpoena him.” 

“Leadership has agreed to call Rod Rosenstein before Congress, for a closed door hearing with our panel investigating, so he can explain his alleged comments on ‘wiring’ POTUS–as well as other inconsistent statements,” Meadows tweeted Friday morning.

“If Mr. Rosenstein fails to show up, we will subpoena him.”

Leadership has agreed to call Rod Rosenstein before Congress, for a closed door hearing with our panel investigating, so he can explain his alleged comments on “wiring” POTUS–as well as other inconsistent statements.

If Mr. Rosenstein fails to show up, we will subpoena him.

— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) September 28, 2018

The development comes after Freedom Caucus leaders huddled Wednesday with Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), where conservatives urged top Republicans to have Rosenstein testify under oath in front of the Judiciary panel.

Goodlatte said in a statement Friday that his panel invited Rosenstein to sit down for a “private meeting” in the coming weeks, but they are still working out the details.

“As part of the House Judiciary Committee’s joint investigation and oversight responsibilities, we’ve invited Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to come in for a private meeting in the coming weeks,” Goodlatte said. “We are working with the Justice Department on details and will relay more information about the meeting soon.”

“There are many questions we have for Mr. Rosenstein, including questions about allegations made against him in a recent news article,” he added. “We need to get to the bottom of these very serious claims.”

House conservatives had threatened to force an impeachment vote on the House floor if Rosenstein refused to testify, with Meadows calling it a “dereliction of duty” if they fail to even bring him in for questioning.

A meeting between President Trump and Rosenstein, which had initially been scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed until next week.

Rosenstein’s future has been in question since a bombshell New York Times report last week claimed that the deputy attorney general suggested secretly recording Trump after his controversial decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey and that he had discussed Cabinet officials invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

Ryan had said earlier in the week that Rosenstein’s fate should be left up to Trump — not Congress.

“The president obviously should have political appointees he has faith and confidence in. [Rosenstein] is meeting with the president tomorrow, so we should not step in the way of that,” Ryan told reporters on Wednesday. “We should let the president work it out with Rod Rosenstein.”

— Updated at 1:05 p.m.