Stymied with Mueller, Trump reportedly mulls firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein

President Trump reportedly backed off his threats to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller last year under pressure from White House Counsel Don McGahn, but more recently, CNN reports, he has expressed an interest in firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein instead. Rosenstein oversees Mueller's probe into Russian election meddling efforts and alleged Trump campaign collusion, and multiple unnamed sources tell CNN the president has complained about him in recent weeks.

"Let's fire him, let's get rid of him," Trump reportedly says of Rosenstein. His staff discourage the idea: "When this comes up — everyone says, 'That's the death march. That's not going to accomplish anything,'" one source said.

White House attorney Ty Cobb denied the report. "We do not find it to be a coincidence that there is an onslaught of false stories circulating in what appears to be a coordinated effort to distract and deflect from new revelations about already reported bias and corruption," he said. "We continue to cooperate with the special counsel and out of respect for that process will not weigh in further."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up