Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is resigning amid continued conflict with President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports.
The New York Times and AP sources said Rosenstein expected to be fired Monday at the White House, after news reports Friday said he floated the idea of secretly recording Trump last year and raised the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump as unfit for office. Rosenstein denied the reports.
NBC reported that the White House claimed Rosenstein has offered to resign, but Justice Department sources say Rosenstein won’t resign and will have to be fired.
Bloomberg and Axios, however, say Rosenstein has already verbally submitted his resignation to Chief of Staff John Kelly and the White House has accepted it.
It’s unclear when Rosenstein would officially leave, but a source told Bloomberg that he’s expected to be out of the job Monday.
Rosenstein is currently the official in charge of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself. Trump has frequently criticized the probe, which includes possible collusion between the Trump campaign, obstruction of justice, and Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as a “witch hunt.”
A source told ABC that Solicitor General Noel Francisco, an Oswego native, is likely to take over as acting attorney general with oversight in the Mueller investigation.