Trump is now expected to keep Rod Rosenstein through the midterms

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's job may be safe for at least a few more weeks.

The Washington Post reports that ahead of Thursday's meeting between Rosenstein and President Trump, the general consensus among administration officials is that the deputy attorney general will stick around until after the midterms.

This was not always the case, as reports emerged Monday that Rosenstein had offered to resign but was expected to be fired. This followed a report from The New York Times that said Rosenstein had talked about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. The White House subsequently said that Trump and Rosenstein would meet Thursday, declining to comment on whether he was about to lose his job.

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

The new report says Rosenstein did indeed tell the White House over the weekend he was willing to resign, and his departure seemed like such a sure thing that a succession plan was in place on Monday, leaving officials surprised when his ouster went unannounced. The officials who spoke with the Post didn't rule out the possibility that Rosenstein will be fired this week, but they don't think it's likely, as his ouster could adversely affect Republicans in November's midterm elections.

Instead, officials now expect Rosenstein to depart after the midterms, and they think Attorney General Jeff Sessions will go with him.