“UNDER OATH”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Oct. 18, 2018) — The House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairmen announced Thursday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is scheduled to testify in private but under oath on Wednesday, October 24, regarding matters stemming from a New York Times article claiming that Rosenstein devised a plan last year to have President Trump removed from office.
The session is a rescheduling of Rosenstein’s anticipated testimony on October 11, which did not materialize.
Respective Chairmen Bob Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy, both of whom are retiring from Congress in January, said that Rosenstein’s testimony will take place with themselves, the ranking members of each committee, and a court reporter only in the room. In order to avoid releasing classified information to the public, the transcript of the session, in which Rosenstein will answer questions “under oath,” will first be reviewed by the House Intelligence Committee, the announcement reads.
Earlier on Thursday, House Judiciary Committee member and Freedom Caucus founder Mark Meadows tweeted his opinion that Rosenstein should “resign immediately” following closed-door testimony from former FBI Chief Counsel James Baker.
Baker, who testified to members of Congress previously, reportedly said that although he was not in the meeting where Rosenstein allegedly spoke of his idea to “wear a wire” to secretly record the president and attempt to make a case for his removal from office via the 25th Amendment, he spoke with Rosenstein afterward and interpreted his remarks to be “serious.”
Rosenstein allegedly made the comments to then-FBI Counsel to the Deputy Director Lisa Page and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Page resigned in May, while McCabe was fired in March and is currently a subject of a grand jury investigation, according to The Washington Post last month.
On Wednesday Meadows expressed his displeasure with Rosenstein for having interviewed with The Wall Street Journal but refused to testify to Congress.
During the interview, Rosenstein defended his appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to continue the investigation into whether or not the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russian operatives and the extent of Russian “meddling” in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Trump has said that he and Rosenstein have a good relationship and that he has no intention of firing him. Whether or not Rosenstein will remain at his post after the end of the year has been a topic of discussion among pundits of late, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s fate. Following his recusal from all matters related to Russia early last year, Trump has repeatedly tweeted his frustration with his attorney general, who was the first member of the U.S. Senate to publicly support Trump’s candidacy.