Exclusive: Rod Rosenstein is resigning

By artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 10:58am |

By Jonathan Swan @ Axios.com, 25 mins. ago

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by President Trump, according to a source with direct knowledge. Per a second source with direct knowledge: “He’s expecting to be fired,” so he plans to step down [....]

URL:

https://www.axios.com/rod-rosenstein-resign-justice-department-trump-cf761f4c-fca3-4794-92d4-a56c9e32ff43.html

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now the headline @ WaPo:

Rosenstein, who had been overseeing Russia probe, has offered to resign

The move comes as it appeared President Trump might fire Rod J. Rosenstein over revelations he had suggested secretly recording the president, but it’s unclear if the resignation has been accepted.

By Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 11:14am

new headline @ NYTimes.com, published 3 min. ago:

Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, Is Expected to Leave Job

Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, was expected to leave the Justice Department, days after private discussions were revealed in which he talked about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office.
It was not immediately clear whether he expected to be fired by Mr. Trump or whether he planned to resign.

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 11:17am

Mueller needs to activate Contingency Plan Zulu.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 24, 2018

Because Trump. https://t.co/pB5tcvpHuT
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 24, 2018

Wilson is the author "Everything Trump Touches Dies". Previous tweets:

No way he's going to the WH for a routine meeting where the WH made sure there was a media stakeout at his driveway.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 24, 2018

Rosenstein is out.

This is going to get loud, fast.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 24, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 11:24am

Seems like an important, perhaps decisive, moment in Kelly’s tenure too... https://t.co/kDR7FklnYL
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 24, 2018

This week will be insane. pic.twitter.com/1fSmxR4pnV
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 24, 2018

Folks: Mueller's team surely was preparing for this. Once they locked in Manafort it became less dangerous. So we shall see what happens.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) September 24, 2018

Spoiler alert: They're not going to start standing up to Trump now. https://t.co/V4CYojWMXz
— Michael Freeman (@michaelpfreeman) September 24, 2018

Come on, Twitter Nixon. Step into the trap.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 24, 2018

The secret of the uncertainty over RR is tension between President Hannity and President Giuliani.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 24, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 11:31am

Sounds familiar https://t.co/YQp6V6XsOh
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) September 24, 2018

Seconded. Time to protect the Mueller investigation. Now. https://t.co/08H2d34U7D
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) September 24, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 11:34am

Do people believe Mueller was Rosenstein’s personal folly and the special counsel closes up shop now? And did they miss the story about Rosenstein trying for a better relationship with Trump in WSJ? https://t.co/I5AbatdV3c
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 24, 2018

Significance to being fired/resigning: whether the WH can use the Vacancies Act to fill the job https://t.co/D62hwQstZa
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 24, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 11:56am

new "breaking" could this end up a case of general insanity? (Whatever happens, I'm glad I saw and recorded all the "breaking" so far, for the record.)

*ROSENSTEIN AND TRUMP TO MEET ON THURSDAY, WHITE HOUSE SAYS
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 24, 2018

This is all going to look silly in a few hours. Or not. https://t.co/IAcPJSlSZX
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 24, 2018

p.s. the correct esoteric physics metaphor to use with Rosenstein is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, not Schrödinger's cat, insofar as the the reporting of the story has possibly affected the outcome.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 24, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 12:52pm

Same day as Kavanaugh hearing bc why tf not!! https://t.co/aeV2SQ2sHl
— Astead (@AsteadWesley) September 24, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 1:06pm

What if the cat leaked the memo?

by moat on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 5:38pm

well he's still attempting to affect the outcome in the world that reads the news? What are you trying to say?

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 7:16pm

Well, I never liked how the Schrodinger story left the cat completely dependent upon forces out of its control.
But more to the present point, It is funny timing. It comes with Trump out of town while his support critters are already maxed out with the crazy.
It has been inevitable that Trump would move on the DOJ at some point as a last resort to avoid wearing orange. I think Giuliani and Hannity had this move on their Gaant chart to happen after the mid terms.
Maybe some people decided to move it up a bit.

by moat on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 7:44pm

FWIW Trump gave a radio interview to Geraldo Rivera, recorded over the weekend, which aired this morning, in which he did address his Rosenstein "problem" for the first time as follows:

President Donald Trump says he has not decided whether or not to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, saying he wants to see the "facts" behind claims that Rosenstein talked about wiretapping the president and possibly seeking to remove him from office.

“I haven’t gotten all the facts, but certainly it’s being looked at in terms of what took place - If anything took place," Trump told radio talk show host Geraldo Rivera. "And I’ll make a determination sometime later, but I don’t have the facts." [....]

It was Trump's first public comments since The New York Times reported that Rosenstein discussed possibly invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump in spring 2017, at a time when Trump's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey plunged the administration into further turmoil.

Rosenstein denied the report, which also said he suggested that officials wear wires and tape their encounters with the president [....]

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 7:55pm

So, on some level, the whole split DOJ thing gives Trump cover.
He knows it will bring him down but plays it as just another plot against him.
I don't understand what is happening.

by moat on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 10:48pm

all I can suggest is a couple things selected from Rick Wilson's tweets above: the first, Because Trump way upthread and then later, The secret of the uncertainty over RR is tension between President Hannity and President Giuliani.

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 11:05pm

First rule about ~~Fight Club~~ 25th Amendment is don't talk about ~~Fight Club~~ 25th Amendment.
Hard to use what you can't even mention.

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 09/25/2018 - 4:12am

My read is Kelly thought or wanted to think RR said he would resign. But he made clear Trump wld have to fire him. Trump didn't have the nerve. https://t.co/k3zh5He3Qi
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 24, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 1:30pm

Josh Marshall has written a bit more, vouches for the accuracy on the White House leakers, and then for prime members (of which I am not) adds more "speculation" about what happened:

How Trump got rolled

A bit more speculation. White House officials were clearly telling reporters with certainty this morning that Rod Rosenstein was out. There was ambiguity about whether he would be fired or resign, and that certainty seems to have been driven in large part by sources at the DOJ who made clear that Rosenstein would have to be fired. But I go back to the point that White House officials, at least until near the end, were saying this was a done deal. Rosenstein was out, only the details were to be determined.

So what happened?

Read more

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 7:07pm

Rosenstein told people he was worried about Trump “disparaging” him if he leaves. People close to Trump aren’t sure what he plans to say to potus at Thursday meeting, which Rosenstein sought https://t.co/m05OIPFVat
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 24, 2018

FWIW I ran across this not on Maggie's feed but retweeted by Politico's Editor in Chief.

Also FWIW I noticed Maggie chiding a couple times now today how reporters should stop trying to guess other reporters sources because they could very well be wrong....

by artappraiser on Mon, 09/24/2018 - 9:37pm

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