WASHINGTON _ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the senior Justice Department official supervising the Russia investigation, will meet Thursday with President Donald Trump, an announcement that stanched, at least for now, a flurry of reports that Rosenstein would be leaving his post.
Rosenstein headed to the White House early Monday "expecting to be fired," according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to comment on the record. It was unclear whether he had previously offered to resign.
Rosenstein spoke with Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, but no decision was announced afterward. Following the conversation, Rosenstein remained at the White House for a previously scheduled meeting with other administration officials, a sign that he had retained his position.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders then issued a statement saying Trump, who is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly until Thursday, would meet with Rosenstein when he returns to Washington.
She also said the president already had "an extended conversation" with Rosenstein.
The confusing episode led to misleading headlines all morning as politicians, reporters and activists scrambled to deduce the future of one of the capital's most important players and the high-stakes probe he oversees.
Rosenstein has been a target of persistent attacks from congressional Republicans for his handling of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into whether anyone from Trump's campaign conspired with Russian authorities to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The pressure on Rosenstein increased following media reports Friday that he had suggested secretly recording the president or removing him from office using the 25th Amendment, steps that were discussed after Trump fired James B. Comey as FBI director in May 2017.
The 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of Cabinet secretaries to declare a president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office," starting a process that would ultimately require two-thirds votes in the House and Senate.
Rosenstein, a Republican and career federal prosecutor who served in Baltimore before Trump nominated him to serve as Attorney General Jeff Sessions' top deputy, denied the reports last week.
"I never pursued or authorized recording the president and any suggestion that I have ever advocated for the removal of the president is absolutely false," he said in a statement.
By itself, Rosenstein's departure would not derail Mueller's high-stakes investigation, and the prosecutors and FBI agents who worked for Mueller can continue their work. But Rosenstein's replacement could try to constrain the probe or even shut it down by declaring that Mueller has overstepped his authority.
Naming a more compliant deputy attorney general to supervise Mueller _ and his budget _ could affect the reach and the focus of the special counsel's probe.
For now, Rosenstein's authority would pass to the next most senior Justice Department official confirmed by the Senate, Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general, who was confirmed in September 2017 by a vote of 50 to 47.
Francisco served under President George W. Bush, first in the White House and then in the Justice Department, from 2001 to 2005. He then joined Jones Day, a prominent Washington law firm and headed their government regulation practice before Trump chose him last year.
Rosenstein and Mueller, a widely respected former FBI director, have faced Trump's ire for what the president has called a "corrupt Russia investigation" and a "rigged witch hunt" driven by partisan politics. In a July 11 tweet, he called it "perhaps the most tainted and corrupt case EVER!"
Mueller, like Rosenstein, is a Republican, but Trump has repeatedly accused prosecutors and FBI agents working for them of supporting Democrats or harboring anti-Trump grudges that, in his telling, should disqualify them from investigating him. Democrats just as loudly urged Rosenstein to rebuff any political interference from the president.
Rosenstein served as U.S. attorney in Maryland for 12 years before Trump named him deputy attorney general in early 2017, applauding his focus on violent crime. He was confirmed in the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Rosenstein assumed oversight of the Russia investigation after Sessions recused himself in March 2017 following reports that he failed to tell Congress about his conversations with a Russian diplomat in 2016, when he was a senior adviser to Trump. After Trump fired Comey as FBI director, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel to lead the Russia investigation in May 2017.
Mueller's team was tasked with determining whether Trump or any of his aides illegally assisted a Russian operation to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by releasing stolen emails or manipulating public opinion with a blizzard of misleading posts on social media.
The investigation has since expanded to include questions about whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to influence the investigation.
So far, Mueller's team has obtained criminal charges against 32 people, although no Americans have been charged with conspiring with Russians.
Four defendants have pleaded guilty to lying to investigators, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos and former deputy campaign chairman Richard Gates, who also admitted to a charge of conspiracy.
Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud in August after a trial in Alexandria, Va. He later cut a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate to avoid a second trial in Washington.
In addition, 25 Russians were indicted for their alleged role in Moscow's covert campaign to boost Trump in the presidential election, but are outside the reach of U.S. courts.
Rosenstein had staunchly defended Mueller's work, telling Congress in December that the special counsel was handling the sensitive case "appropriately." He also vowed to resist an improper order to fire him.
Trump reportedly sought to fire Mueller in mid-2017, backing down when White House Counsel Donald McGahn threatened to quit rather than relay the president's demand to the Justice Department.
Legislation meant to insulate the special counsel from White House interference has languished in Congress. But Democrats and some Republicans have urged Trump to allow Mueller, who led the FBI under presidents from both parties from 2001 to 2013, to finish his investigation.
Rosenstein had little public profile until May 2017, when Trump asked him and Sessions to lay out a case for firing Comey, who was heading the Russia investigation at that time.
In a lengthy letter, Rosenstein sharply criticized Comey for his handling of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of State. The White House initially cited the letter to explain why Trump had abruptly dismissed Comey.
Comey had angered both sides during the 2016 campaign _ first by announcing in July that Clinton had not violated the law, as Trump and her other critics claimed, and then by informing Congress 11 days before the November election that the FBI was examining additional emails related to the Clinton investigation found on another computer.
Like the previous probe, it found no evidence that Clinton had broken the law. But Clinton later blamed Comey's headline-grabbing announcement for helping to tip the election to Trump.
Trump later said he had already decided to fire Comey before asking for Rosenstein's letter, citing his displeasure with "this Russia thing." That put Rosenstein into an untenable position and raised questions about whether Trump was improperly trying to shut down or influence a federal investigation.
Days later, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel, a decision that infuriated the president because it ensured the wide-ranging investigation would continue to cast a cloud over the White House.
Rosenstein also drew fire at the White House when he approved a raid that targeted Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer in New York.
In April, FBI agents hauled away tax records, business documents and other material from Cohen's Manhattan apartment, law office and a hotel room. A federal judge approved the search warrants after Rosenstein signed off on Mueller referring evidence of a possible crime to the U.S. attorney in New York.
Cohen has since pleaded guilty to bank fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance violations. He told the court that Trump directed him, shortly before the election, to make hush money payments to two women who said they had slept with him years ago.
