House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Wednesday said that he is hopeful Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the coming days.
“The eleventh is the date that we’re shooting for. The leadership and Chairman [Bob] Goodlatte [(R-Va.)], and a number of the conservative members, said it should be a transcribed interview in a closed-door setting,” Meadows told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Ned Ryun on “Rising.”
“We have a task force that has six Republicans, six Democrats, and so I fully anticipate that that’s what it’ll be, but the Department of Justice has not agreed to that yet, but hopefully, in the coming days that’ll happen,” he continued.
Meadows’s comments come after The New York Times reported last month that Rosenstein had openly discussed secretly recording President Trump in the Oval Office, and had discussed the possibility of the Cabinet using the 25th Amendment to oust the president from office.
Rosenstein has called the Times article “factually incorrect” and some officials defending Rosenstein said his comments were made in jest.
The report fueled speculation that Rosenstein could resign or that Trump would move to fire him, but that speculation has cooled after a meeting between the two was canceled last week.
Meadows said he does not believe Trump would fire Rosenstein.
Rosenstein is in charge of the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election meddling due to Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself.
“I think at this point, I know the president wants to make sure that transparency happens, but he also wants to make sure that it doesn’t inadvertently look like he’s putting his hand on that scale of justice,” he said.
“Now if something comes in at this hearing that is well beyond what we’ve seen, perhaps, but I do not expect him to be fired by this president.”
— Julia Manchester
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