McCabe asked FBI lawyer for advice after Rosenstein suggested recording Trump: report

Former FBI acting Director Andrew McCabe reportedly talked with the agency’s top lawyer after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested that administration officials wiretap President Trump. 

The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the episode, reported on Tuesday that in 2017 McCabe told the lawyer, James Baker, that Rosenstein had discussed secretly taping the president to see if Trump had obstructed justice.

McCabe then asked Baker how the FBI should address the deputy attorney general’s suggestion. Baker reportedly dismissed the idea. 

{mosads}Baker, however, told congressional investigators this week that Rosenstein’s dramatic suggestion had been presented to him as being serious, according to the Post.

The revelation would contradict Rosenstein’s denials last month about the New York Times report that said he discussed secretly taping the president and potentially invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. 

“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.  

The Washington Post noted that Baker was not at the alleged meeting in which Rosenstein suggested wiretapping Trump. Democratic aides familiar with the lawyer’s testimony told the newspaper that he couldn’t recall whether McCabe or former FBI lawyer Lisa Page was the one to recount the interaction to him.

McCabe reportedly wrote a memo about Rosenstein’s suggestion and has said that the No. 2 ranking Justice Department official discussed taping Trump multiple times. 

A spokeswoman for McCabe told The Hill in a statement that “McCabe has no comment about the Department’s most recent version of events.”

Speculation grew that Rosenstein would be fired or that he would resign after the New York Times report. But, earlier this week Trump said he has no plans to dismiss Rosenstein. 

Rosenstein was scheduled to meet with a pair of House committees this week. But that meeting was postponed on Wednesday.

A House Judiciary Committee aide told The Hill that it is unclear when Rosenstein will appear on Capitol Hill.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

–Updated at 11:19 a.m.