Trump on Rosenstein: ‘My preference would be to keep him’

So they’re buds again? Maybe the best way to keep your job in the Trump Administration is to have someone leak to the failing New York Times that you were going around trying to undermine the president. A story based on anonymous sources? Obviously false. You’ll have a job forever.

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Or did Rosenstein figure out that if he refuses to resign, Trump has little recourse?

“I’m talking with him. We’ve had a good talk. He said he never said it. He said he doesn’t believe. He said he has a lot of respect for me. And he was very nice. And we’ll see,” he said at a news conference, when asked if he would fire Rosenstein. “My preference would be to keep him and to let him finish up,” Trump said, without explaining what he would like Rosenstein to finish working on. Rosenstein currently oversees Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s independent investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Russia denies interfering. Rosenstein is often the target of Trump’s anger. Some news media reported on Monday that Rosenstein would soon leave his post, prompting Trump, in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, to say he would meet with the second-most powerful Justice Department official on Thursday. But Trump told the news conference he could delay the meeting for fear of distracting from a Senate hearing on Brett Kavanaugh, his embattled nominee to join the Supreme Court.

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If Rosenstein resigns, Trump can appoint pretty much anyone he wants to succeed him almost indefinitely, which means the Mueller investigation would come under the direction of someone more in tune with the president. If Trump fires Rosenstein, he would have to go through the normal confirmation process and it would be almost impossible to get a replacement confirmed. That said, I find it hard to believe Trump would keep Rosenstein If Rosenstein really plotted against him behind the scenes. And it’s possible Trump used the incident to extract from Rosenstein a promise to be more forthcoming with documents requested by Congress and so forth, or perhaps to put some boundaries on Mueller’s otherwise limitless investigation. Then again, if Trump tried to do that and Rosenstein refused to agree – or voiced agreement but didn’t follow through – Trump would be right back in the same place again. General observation: The executive branch of the federal government really doesn’t work very well, and for all the criticism Trump takes for railing against his own people, can you really defend their actual performance against his critiques? If you can’t fire Rod Rosenstein because the Senate wants so badly for him to stay, it’s fair to ask why. I think the answer is that they don’t want to be seen as doing anything that presents problems for the Mueller investigation. And about that, again, it’s more than fair to ask why.

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