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Yuri Gripas | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, speaking at a news conference held at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, United States, December 20, 2018.
Rod Rosenstein, the US Deputy Attorney General, who instructed special advocate Robert Mueller to investigate possible links between Russia and President Donald Trump's campaign, is expected to withdraw by mid-March. -mars, announced Monday an official of the Ministry of Justice.
Rosenstein was due to leave shortly after the inauguration of new Attorney General William Barr. Barr was confirmed for the role by the US Senate last week.
The justice official said that Rosenstein's departure was not related to new allegations that he was considering wearing a wire in meetings with Trump and to use the 25th amendment of the Constitution to remove the president.
In May 2017, Rosenstein, the No. 2 Justice Department official, appointed special advocate Robert Mueller to investigate the links that unite Trump's campaign to the presidential election of 2016 and Moscow. The investigation is continuing.
Registered Republican, Rosenstein made the decision because his boss at the time, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Trump supporter during the 2016 campaign, had challenged him for the reason. case.
Last September, the New York Times announced that Rosenstein in 2017 had suggested secretly registering Trump and recruiting cabinet members to overthrow the president, in accordance with the provisions of the 25th amendment to the Constitution.
In an interview broadcast Sunday with CBS News "60 Minutes," former FBI interim director Andrew McCabe confirmed the Times' report that Rosenstein was planning to carry a thread in meetings with Trump.
Rosenstein said the Times' story and McCabe's story were "inaccurate and factually incorrect," a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said after the interview with "60 Minutes."
Earlier on Monday, Trump accused McCabe and Rosenstein of planning a "very illegal act," which he described in a tweet as "illegal and treacherous."
Rosenstein ceased overseeing Mueller's investigation on Nov. 7 when Trump appointed Matt Whittaker Acting Attorney General. Barr is now monitoring the investigation.
Rosenstein had attracted much more attention than is typical of the Department of Justice No. 2 leader because of his decision to appoint Mueller to lead the investigation eight days after Trump's dismissal of James Comey as director from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Trump has often and publicly spoken about the Mueller probe, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Justice, which oversees both of them.
The president denied any collusion and Russia said that there was no electoral interference despite the contrary conclusions of the US intelligence services.
Mueller's investigation, which the President has repeatedly called a "witch hunt", has so far brought together 34 people and three companies that have pleaded guilty, have been charged or have been swept away. one way or another in the investigation.
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