Rosenstein faces congressional confrontation amid new claim he seriously suggested wiretapping Trump
Soon after Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein suggested using a wiretap to record President Trump’s communications, then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe went to the bureau’s top lawyer seeking advice on what he had just heard.
Rosenstein, McCabe told the lawyer, wanted to furtively record the president to help explore whether Trump had obstructed justice. How, McCabe asked, should the FBI respond to the outlandish proposition?
The lawyer, James Baker, dismissed the idea, according to people familiar with the episode who described it to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. But importantly, Baker told congressional investigators last week that the deputy attorney general’s suggestion was presented to him by senior FBI officials as being serious — raising questions about Rosenstein’s assertions to the contrary, the people said.
This week, Rosenstein is scheduled to talk to congressional investigators about the 2017 episode, which nearly cost him his job after it was revealed in news accounts last month. The high-stakes interview with some of the president’s closest Republican allies could again put the deputy attorney general in the hot seat, especially if those lawmakers leave the interview unconvinced of Rosenstein’s testimony and relay their concerns to the president.
His testimony also could give Trump supporters more ammunition to criticize the special counsel probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, an investigation Rosenstein supervises.
Negotiations were ongoing Tuesday night about the time and parameters of his Thursday interview. Representatives for Baker and the Justice Department declined to comment.
“Really, we want to give the deputy attorney general the chance to clarify what was said and what was not said,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a Trump ally who has in the past been critical of Rosenstein.
Baker was not at the controversial meeting where Rosenstein broached the idea of a wiretap; his account to Congress, first reported by the Hill and Fox News, reflected what was relayed to him by other FBI officials with direct knowledge of the discussion.
According to Democratic aides familiar with Baker’s testimony last week, Baker could not recall which senior FBI official — McCabe or lawyer Lisa Page, who was at the Rosenstein meeting — recounted the substance of what was said to him. One of the aides said that while Baker characterized Rosenstein’s concern as “very serious,” it did not appear that Baker thought Rosenstein’s proposal was “an official one.”
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