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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested last year that he secretly record Donald Trump “to expose the chaos consuming the administration” shortly after the president fired former FBI Director James Comey, The New York Times reports. Rosenstein also reportedly discussed “recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment” to remove Trump from office—including telling former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe that he might be able to convince Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly “to mount an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment,” the newspaper reports. Rosenstein allegedly made the remarks in “meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and F.B.I. officials,” but none of the proposals were carried out.
A Justice Department spokeswoman provided a statement from a person who heard Rosenstein make the comment about “wearing a wire,” but that person claims the remark was said sarcastically, according to the Times. Rosenstein called the Times report “inaccurate and factually incorrect.” “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment,” he wrote.