Trump postpones meeting with Rosenstein to avoid 'anything to interfere' with Kavanaugh hearings

Rod Rosenstein.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump has officially postponed a meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein scheduled for Thursday. Trump wants to avoid doing "anything to interfere" with the ongoing hearings about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told The Associated Press.

Trump was expected to fire Rosenstein after a New York Times report published Friday said that Rosenstein mentioned using the 25th Amendment to force the president out of office. But in a press conference Wednesday, Trump said he'd "certainly prefer not doing that." Rosenstein oversees Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, and Trump said he would like to "keep him and let him finish up." After all, Trump said, he spoke to Rosenstein briefly on Monday and Rosenstein denied mentioning the 25th Amendment.

The meeting with Rosenstein was scheduled Monday, but it would've come in the midst of Senate Judiciary Committee testimonies from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation.

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Trump couldn't meet with Rosenstein earlier than Thursday because he was at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The meeting will happen sometime next week, Sanders told AP.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.