Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has “verbally resigned” to Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by Donald Trump according to a report in Axios…
NBC News' Pete Williams reports that Rosenstein is currently on his way to the White House to say that he will not resign and will need to be fired if Trump wants him out.
WATCH: @PeteWilliamsNBC provides his analysis and insights after Deputy AG Rosenstein is summoned to the White House. pic.twitter.com/vVYBJJsXYe
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 24, 2018
The NYT: “It was not immediately clear whether he expected to be fired by Mr. Trump or whether he planned to resign. Justice Department officials said on Monday morning that he was on his way to the White House expecting to be fired. But over the weekend, Mr. Rosenstein called a White House official and said he was considering quitting, and a person close to the White House said he was resigning. It was also unclear whether Mr. Trump would accept a resignation that would likely thrust the administration into further turmoil just weeks before November's midterm elections.”
The new comes in the wake of a New York Times story on Friday reporting that he talked about secretly recording Trump and recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment and declare the president unfit. NBC News spoke to Justice Department officials following the NYT report who said that Rosenstein was joking.
UPDATE. Trump will meet with Rosenstein on Thursday to discuss his fate: ‘Ms. Sanders, in a statement, said that Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. Trump had “an extended conversation” about the reports — including the fact that Mr. Rosenstein had discussed secretly taping the president. She said the two men will meet on Thursday when the president returns to Washington from New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.'
