Sen. Orrin Hatch doesn't want to see President Donald Trump run Rod Rosenstein out of the Justice Department, warning Monday that doing so "would cause a furor that I don't think we need right now."
Hatch, R-Utah, discussed the political drama with a group of reporters Monday, just hours after Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing the Russia investigation, offered to resign. Trump talked to Rosenstein by phone Monday setting up a high-stakes face-to-face meeting Thursday.
Hatch, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and regular Trump ally, said "it would be better" if Trump kept Rosenstein in place.
“I like Rosenstein and I think the president does, too,” Hatch said.
Reporters asked Hatch if there’d be negative consequences if Trump dismisses the deputy A.G. According to a Bloomberg reporter, Hatch said, “I worry about things like that, but it is up to the president.”
It appears that a New York Times story indicating that Rosenstein suggested secretly recording the president and potentially using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office led to Monday’s events.
Rosenstein says the Times story is wrong.
Trump has made Rosenstein a frequent target, arguing the Russia investigation, led by special counsel Robert Mueller at the direction of Rosenstein, is a “witch hunt.”
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