Rod Rosenstein meeting delayed as wary White House keeps close eye on Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearing

Issue stems from article which claimed deputy attorney general suggested taping Donald Trump and talked about the possibility of removing president from office

Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein is set to face private questions from senior members of the Republican party (AP)

Resignations and sackings have been a regular theme of Donald Trump’s White House tenure, so it was no surprise when stories emerged early last week that deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein was in the president’s cross hairs.

First came the reports that Mr Rosenstein - who oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion with Trump campaign officials - was worried he was set to be fired. Unnamed sources in various outlets suggested that Mr Rosenstein was for the chop at a White House meeting on Thursday, or would jump before he was pushed.

The issue stems from a New York Times report that claimed Mr Rosenstein had suggested taping Mr Trump, and had also talked about the possibility of using the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. Mr Rosenstein denied the report, calling it “inaccurate”, but with Mr Trump increasingly frustrated by what he calls the “witch hunt” of the Mueller investigation, the die seemed cast.

The end would have usually been swift, the unprecedented turnover in the White House is testament to that. However, given the importance of the congressional hearings into the sexual assault and misconduct allegations against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, the meeting was postponed.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the meeting could be delayed again.

“A date for that hasn’t been set. It could be this week. I could see it pushing back another week given all the other things that are going on with the Supreme Court, but we’ll see,” Ms Sanders told Fox News.

Mr Rosenstein will also be privately questioned by Republican party politicians about the comments. Virginia congressman Robert W Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee said: "We need to get to the bottom of these very serious claims.”

Nothing should be surprising about the actions of America’s 45th president any more, it has been too long for that. But the episode shows how important the next few weeks are to Mr Trump, and the Republican party.

First, the Kavanaugh hearings. Having backed his nominee strongly as Judge Kavanaugh denied three separate allegations against him. But on Thursday, the first of those accusers – Dr Christine Blasey Ford – gave powerful testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about an allegation she was assaulted by Mr Kavanaugh at a party when the pair were both in high school.

Mr Trump praised both Dr Ford and Kavanaugh in the wake of the hearings. “I thought her testimony was very compelling. She looks like a very fine woman to me,” he said of Dr Ford.

He then ordered the FBI to instigate another background check on Mr Kavanaugh within a week, a condition the committee had placed on pushing the nomination to a full senate vote.

Having repeatedly accused the Democrats on the committee of delaying the vote, the fact that Mr Trump granted the request is indicative of the fact that the president sees the confirmation of the conservative Mr Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court as vital.

Tipping the Court further to the right has been the aim of Republicans for years, and with his second nomination in less than 18 months Mr Trump gets to do that decisively. It is one of the main reasons that some in his party put up with things like the president’s impulsive tweeting - the chance to fundamentally change the highest court in the land for a generation or more.

Getting Mr Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court would be a fillip for the party ahead of crucial midterm elections at the start of November that will decide control of congress and therefore the strength of the rest of the Trump presidency. Republicans are at risk of losing the House of Representatives

Not getting Mr Kavanaugh confirmed before 6 November would be a blow to the Republicans, but there is also the danger of electoral fallout if they looked like they were ignoring Dr Ford’s testimony.

So where does that leave Mr Rosenstein? In the wake of the first meeting being postponed, Mr Trump said: “My preference would be to keep him, and to let him finish up.”

Mr Rosenstein could still be fired to leave – after all, Mr Trump has previously done it to former FBI director James Comey and former secretary of state Rex Tillerson after weeks of speculation over their jobs. However, there seems to a realisation from the White House that however angry Mr Trump or his staff may get, the Supreme Court and November’s election are currently the priority.