What happens after Rod Rosenstein? Meet controversial Trump-appointee Noel Francisco expected to oversee Russia probe

Donald Trump is expected to meet with the deputy attorney general on Thursday as the fate of the Russia probe remains in the air

Rod Rosenstein kicked off the week with an unexpected trip to the White House, as his job and the fate of the Russia probe remains in question.

There are reports that Mr Rosenstein has thought about resigning as he "expects t be fired" after an explosive New York Times report alleged he discussed wearing a wire to secretly record Donald Trump and recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Mr Rosenstein called the report "inaccurate".

His removal would likely make way for Noel Francisco, a conservative appointee of Mr Trump who has advocated for broad executive powers, to oversee the federal investigation into Russia’s impact in the 2016 presidential election.

The solicitor general was confirmed during a 50-47 party-line vote in September of last year, boasting a conservative track-record that includes working in the Justice Department under George W. Bush and serving as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Mr Francisco, tasked with the role of defending the administration’s agenda to the Supreme Court, has fought for broad executive powers under Mr Trump. In one case from June of this year, he defended the president’s ability to fire executive branch officials.

His tenure in conservative politics includes a slew of positions serving Republican interests. In 2000, he worked on Mr Bush’s legal team during the Florida recount, in which the former president won a machine recount after a gruelling 36-day probe.

He also served as a partner at the firm that represented Bob McDonnell, the Virginia governor who successfully had his corruption conviction dropped in 2016 after the Supreme Court vacated his previous convictions.

In 2007, the solicitor general defended Mr Bush’s firing of nine US attorneys while also criticising the use of special counsels to investigate issues impacting "public integrity".

"I don’t think it would be appropriate for the Department of Justice to appoint" a special counsel, he testified at the time. "My own personal belief is that when you hand these issues off to the career prosecutors in the public integrity sections in the US attorneys’ offices in the Department of Justice, those attorneys are generally better able to assess whether a case should be pursued."

Justice Department nominees, (L-R), Noel Francisco to be Solicitor General, Makan Delrahim to be an assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division, and Steven Engel to be an assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, raise their right hands as they are sworn in during their Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, on 10 May 2017. (Getty)

The latest New York Times detailing Mr Rosenstein’s alleged comments in May 2017, as well as an anonymous opinion piece by a senior official in the administration, have played to some of the president’s concerns about a secret "Deep State" trying to undermine him from within the government.

The unnamed administration official, whom Mr Trump has called for a federal investigation to unmask, wrote that there was a group of officials working to safeguard the country from the president’s most dangerous impulses. Mr Trump’s behaviour had prompted “whispers” in the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, a move that was backed away from due to concerns it would "precipitate a constitutional crisis," the writer said.

In Mr Rosenstein’s case, the deputy attorney general has said that the Times report was inaccurate and based on "biased" anonymous sources "advancing their own personal agenda."

“Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment,” he said.

The Justice Department also released a statement from a person who said Mr Rosenstein’s recording comment was meant sarcastically.

If Mr Rosenstein were to resign instead of being fired, it would allow the White House to use the Vacancies Reform Act to fill his role. The federal provision allows the president to circumvent the existing agency line of succession in most instances. But experts doubt it can be applied when the president creates the vacancy, by firing the officeholder.

As of Sunday, Mr Trump said he had not decided what to do about his deputy attorney general. The president angrily asked confidants, both inside and outside the White House, how to respond. He received mixed messages. Some urged him to fire Mr Rosenstein. Others suggested restraint while seeing if the report was incorrect or if it was planted by some adversary.

Congressional Republicans, Democrats and some presidential aides have warned for months that Mr Trump should not fire Mr Rosenstein, saying such a move could lead to impeachment proceedings if the Democrats retake the House in the upcoming midterms.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whose private memos document comments made by Mr Rosenstein, said Monday he he was concerned that a Rosenstein departure would put the investigation at risk.

"There is nothing more important to the integrity of law enforcement and the rule of law than protecting the investigation of special counsel Mueller," Mr McCabe said in a statement. "I sacrificed personally and professionally to help put the investigation on a proper course and subsequently made every effort to protect it."

Mr Rosenstein appointed Mr Mueller in May of last year after Jeff Sessions, who ordinarily would have overseen the investigation, recused himself because of his close involvement in the Trump campaign.

During his nomination process to the Justice Department, Mr Francisco suggested he would serve as an "independent" legal counsel under Mr Trump.

"If confirmed, I will provide the President, the White House, and any other entity that I am called upon to advise with candid and independent legal advice," he said.

According to his arguments in several cases under Mr Trump, the solicitor general appears to believe a president has the express right to dismiss any official with powers granted by the executive branch. That could prove a damning stance for someone set to become the nation’s acting deputy attorney general, as Mr Trump reportedly continues to mull over whether he will fire the Special Counsel.

"The president’s constitutional responsibility to faithfully execute the laws requires adequate authority to remove subordinate officers," Mr Francisco told the Supreme Court in February. "The framers understood the close connection between the president’s ability to discharge his responsibilities as head of the executive branch and his control over its personnel. … The president’s ability to execute the law is thus inextricably linked to his authority to hold his subordinates accountable for their conduct."

The Associated Press contributed to this report