Rosenstein to travel with Trump on Air Force One

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is set to travel aboard Air Force One with President Trump on Monday. 

Rosenstein planned to travel with the president on his visit to the annual conference fo the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Orlando.

{mosads}An official with the Justice Department confirmed to The Hill that the deputy attorney general would join the president on Air Force One. The New York Times first reported the development.

The move comes nearly two weeks after the two were first scheduled to meet following a New York Times report that Rosenstein had proposed secretly recording conversations with Trump and discussed the possibility of administration officials invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office shortly after former FBI Director James Comey was fired in 2017.

There was widespread speculation that Rosenstein would either resign or be fired following The Times report.

Trump postponed a scheduled meeting until after then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process concluded. Kavanaugh was confirmed on Saturday in a 50-48 vote.

Rosenstein told senior White House officials that he wished to resign in the days after the report surfaced, according to the Times. But his offer came as Kavanaugh’s confirmation process became contentious, which led to a meeting between Trump and Rosenstein being postponed.

Trump has since stated that he’s willing to keep Rosenstein at the Justice Department, where he oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference. 

“Many people said I had the right to absolutely fire him. He said he did not say it. He said he does not believe that. And nobody in this room believes it, by the way,” Trump told reporters at the United Nations earlier this month, before saying that he preferred to keep Rosenstein in his role.

Rosenstein immediately pushed back following the initial report by the Times, calling it “inaccurate” and “factually incorrect.”

“I never pursued or authorized recording the President and any suggestion that I have ever advocated for the removal of the President is absolutely false,” Rosenstein said in a statement.  

Morgan Chalfant contributed.

Updated at 9:07 a.m.