Trump meeting stokes fears he may oust Rosenstein

Politico
by Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein
4/12/2018

Excerpt:

Rod Rosenstein, the embattled deputy attorney general overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday amid growing fears that the president may oust Rosenstein in an attempt to rein in the inquiry.

A source familiar with the meeting said the topic of the White House meeting was outstanding document requests from Congress — a front-and-center complaint among some Republican lawmakers and Trump allies who have been clamoring for Rosenstein’s firing.

While the source said Rosenstein exited the meeting with his job still intact, the topic of the meeting — one that would usually be below the level of a presidential discussion — stoked concerns that Trump may be pursuing a backhand way to undercut Mueller’s wider Russia investigation without sparking an outright constitutional crisis.

Rosenstein, the No. 2 Justice Department official, who has lead authority over Mueller’s investigation because of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal, has increasingly come under fire from Trump and White House allies after he reportedly authorized an FBI raid on Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney.

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