Trump Jr. slams Rosenstein report: ‘No one is shocked’

Donald Trump Jr. slammed the Department of Justice after The New York Times reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein proposed secretly recording conversations in the Oval Office with President Trump and discussed the possibility of Cabinet officials invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him.

“Shocked!!! Absolutely Shocked!!! Ohhh, who are we kidding at this point? No one is shocked that these guys would do anything in their power to undermine @realdonaldtrump,” he tweeted Friday afternoon.

Shocked!!! Absolutely Shocked!!! Ohhh, who are we kidding at this point? No one is shocked that these guys would do anything in their power to undermine @realdonaldtrump.

Rosenstein Suggested He Secretly Record Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment https://t.co/ZTEwS8E1iJ

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 21, 2018

{mosads}The Times reported that Rosenstein made the comments to then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe in the aftermath of Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey.

They wrote that he discussed recruiting Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House chief of staff John Kelly in an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment, which allows a majority vote by a president’s Cabinet to remove the president if he is deemed unfit for office. The Cabinet vote sends the issue to Congress, which by a two-thirds vote in both chambers must also vote to remove the president.

Rosenstein and the Department of Justice have said the New York Times story is false. 

“The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” Rosenstein said in a statement to The New York Times. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda.” 

“But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment,” he added.

Trump Jr. has been a proponent of the theory that a “deep state” made up of career government officials is working internally to prevent the president’s agenda from become reality.

“If there was ever confirmation that the Deep State is real, illegal & endangers national security, it’s this. Their interests above all else,” he tweeted in 2017, citing the conservative Drudge Report. 

If there was ever confirmation that the Deep State is real, illegal & endangers national security, it’s this. Their interests above all else https://t.co/TdQT2NxErx

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 7, 2017

Advocates of the existence of a “deep state” often point to leaks from within the administration and the Justice Department, which overseas special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including whether the Trump campaign colluded with those efforts. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump has sought to obstruct justice in that investigation.