President Donald Trump said he doesn’t intend to let go of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, putting to bed the rumors that the man overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion wouldn’t be sticking around much longer.
Rosenstein joined Trump aboard Air Force One on Monday where they had a “great” conversation, Trump later said.
“I’m not making any changes” to Rosenstein’s job, he added when asked if he planned to fire him.
Before boarding the plane Trump said he and Rosenstein “have a good relationship other than there’s been no collusion.”
The two were initially scheduled to meet in late September, following reports that he was expecting to be fired, a source familiar with his thinking told HuffPost at the time. The New York Times had reported that Rosenstein suggested secretly recording the president in May 2017 and had also brought up invoking the 25th amendment to impeach him, claims which Rosenstein denied.
The Russia probe, which has so far resulted in two prison sentences, one conviction and five guilty pleas, has also long been a thorn in Trump’s side.
The meeting was ultimately postponed in light of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dramatic Senate confirmation process. Rosenstein is now likely to stick around at least until the midterm elections, according to The Wall Street Journal.