What happened with Rod Rosenstein?

There were chaotic scenes in the White House yesterday, after deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein appeared to have been fired by Donald Trump, or had resigned.

The confusion began on Friday, when the New York Times published a story claiming that Rosenstein had at one stage suggested that he secretly record Trump “to expose the chaos consuming the administration”.

According to the paper’s sources, Rosenstein had also discussed recruiting cabinet members in order to invoke the 25th amendment, to remove the US president from office for being unfit.

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Rosenstein met White House chief of staff John Kelly, and released a statement saying that the Times story was “inaccurate and factually incorrect” – however CNN reports that Trump “asked associates in the hours after the story was published if he should ‘just fire him.’”

Rosenstein, who oversees Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, reportedly verbally offered to resign yesterday morning, causing confusion among West Wing staff before the White House released a statement saying Rosenstein remained in his role.

The Washington Post says the confusion over Rosenstein was compounded by a further escalation of the allegations of sexual misconduct by Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh.

Lawyer Michael Avenatti, who currently represents adult film actress Stormy Daniels, announced on the weekend that he is representing a third woman who is planning on coming forward with fresh allegations against Kavanaugh.

Speaking from New York, where he is attending the general assembly of the United Nations, Trump sought to play down the chaos surrounding Rosenstein, saying the pair will meet on Thursday, when “we’ll be determining what’s going on”.