White House postpones meeting between Trump, Rosenstein

A highly anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his deputy attorney general, RodRosenstein, was postponed until next week to avoid conflicting with adramatic Senate hearinginvolving Supreme Court nominee BrettKavanaugh, the White House said Thursday.

The two were set to meet Thursday following news media reports thatRosensteinlast year discussed possibly secretly recording the president and using the Constitution's25thAmendment to remove him from office.

But White House spokespersonSarah Sanders said the men agreed to reschedule their meeting because "they do not want to do anything to interfere with the hearing."

Amid speculation that the meeting could result inRosenstein'sdismissal or resignation, Trump said Wednesday that he would "certainly prefer not" to fireRosensteinand that the Justice Department's No. 2 official had denied making the remarks first attributed to him in aNew York Times report.

"I would much prefer keeping RodRosenstein," Trump said at a news conference in New York. "He said he did not say it. He said he does not believe that. He said he has a lot of respect for me, and he was very nice and we'll see."

Trump added, "My preference would be to keep him and to let him finish up."

White House counsellorKellyanneConway would not say Thursday when the meeting would take place, but stressed that the two will talk and Trump has made clear "he would prefer that the deputy attorney general stay on the job and complete the job."

Rosensteinoversees Russia probe

Rosensteinis overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and his dismissal would put that probe in jeopardy and create a political storm.

The meeting delay prolongs the uncertainty ofRosenstein'sstatus.Rosensteinheaded to the White House on Monday morning preparing to be fired and had discussed a possible resignation over the weekend with White House officials. But after meeting with chief of staff John Kelly and speaking by phone with Trump, he got a reprieve with the Trump meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Since then, the White House has sought to tamp down anxiety thatRosensteinwould be fired.

White House officials called senators Monday to say Trump had said he wouldn't be firingRosensteinat the meeting, according to two people familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions. Aides have advised Trump against taking any extreme actions ahead of the midterm elections with his party's majorities in Congress already under threat.

Friends and former colleagues ofRosensteinsay they don't expect him to step aside and give up oversight of the Russia investigation and the enormous swath of Justice Department operations for which he is responsible.

Rosenstein, who has spent his entire career in government, "has tremendous loyalty to the department," said former Justice Department lawyer and longtime friend James Trusty.

"He's a very long-run, historical-minded guy in a lot of ways," Trusty said. "I think he may have some confidence that history will be kinder to him than politicians are."

Trump's remarks Wednesday followed a chaotic period that began last Friday with reports thatRosensteinhad last year discussed possibly secretly recording the president and invoking the U.S. Constitution to remove Trump from office. The Justice Department issued statements aimed at denying the reports, including one that said the wiretap remark was meant sarcastically.

Rosensteinappointed Mueller in May 2017,oversees his work and has repeatedly defended the breadth and scope of the probe. Trump has been critical ofRosenstein'soversight of the investigation, but the two have at times displayed a warm working relationship, andRosensteinhas been spared some of the more personal and antagonistic broadsides levelled against Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

ThoughRosensteinappears poised to survive the week, it's not clear how much longer he'll be around. Trump has signalled that he may fire Sessions after the November midterms, andRosensteincould go with him.

However, some officials around Trump believeRosenstein'sreported musings about invoking the25thAmendment could make it easily defensible for Trump to part with him, even in the final sprint to election day.

Rosenstein'sfriends and former colleagues describe him as exceptionally committed to the Justice Department one said he "bleeds" for the agencyand unlikely to leave on his own, though they say he respects the chain of command enough to resign if asked.