Reuters
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told President Donald Trump last week that he wasn’t at this point a target of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling, according to Bloomberg News.
Rosenstein brought up the Mueller probe himself and assured the president he was off the hook during a sitdown at the White House last Thursday, news that headed off the president’s rising anger over the investigation, the news service said, citing a pair of sources.
After the meeting, Trump told some of his closest advisers that it’s not the right time to remove either man since Trump’s not a target of the probe. One person said Trump doesn’t want to take any action that would drag out the investigation.
The change in attitude by the president comes after weeks of attacks on the special counsel and the Justice Department, raising questions about whether he might take drastic steps to shut down the probe.
The shift gives some breathing room for Mueller, as well as Rosenstein, who has been criticized strongly by House Republicans for being slow to comply with requests for classified documents.
Last week’s meeting was set up in part to allow Rosenstein to assuage Trump’s frustration with his decisions.
At the same time, Rosenstein’s message may have been based on a technicality.
Trump may not officially be a target, but Mueller hasn’t ruled out making him one at some point in the future, according to a US official with knowledge of the unfolding investigation.
Trump, who still hasn’t ruled out removing Rosenstein and Mueller at some point, signaled his shift in approach to them Wednesday, responding to a reporter’s question about their fate by saying they are “still here.”
“They’ve been saying I’m going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. “And they’re still here. We want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us. And we have to get back to business.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on Rosenstein’s meeting with Trump, which was also attended by White House general counsel Don McGahn, FBI general counsel Dana Boente, and White House chief of staff John Kelly.
The moment echoes another conversation early in Trump’s presidency, when he spoke with then-FBI Director James Comey.