Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will not meet with President Donald Trump until next week, the White House announced Thursday, so that news of the meeting won’t “interfere” with ongoing Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders made the schedule change official in a discussion with reporters early Thursday afternoon after the Senate hearings were well underway.
Trump-Rosenstein meeting moved to next week, according to WH Press Sec Sarah Sanders. “The President spoke with Rod Rosenstein a few minutes ago and they plan to meet next week. They do not want to do anything to interfere with the hearing.”
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 27, 2018
Rosenstein resumed regular duties, taking a Cabinet-level meeting at the White House and then returning to the Justice Department rather than meeting with the president, who was in New York City Thursday morning for the United Nations General Assembly but is expected to return home to Washington sometime in the afternoon.
Trump had planned to meet with Rosenstein to discuss a New York Times report from last week, alleging that Rosenstein encouraged his colleagues to tape all conversations they had with the president and that Rosenstein was quietly pressuring Cabinet officials to consider the 25th Amendment, which would allow them to remove the president if they felt he was unable to execute his duties.
Rosenstein flatly denied both allegations in interviews over the weekend, accusing The New York Times of relying on anonymous sources. A report in NBC News Monday suggested that colleagues thought Rosenstein’s quip about “wearing a wire” to meet Trump was a “sarcastic” remark.