‘This wasn’t a flippant remark’: New York Times journalist shoots down DoJ claims that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein was ‘joking’ when he said he ‘wanted to wear wire’ to record the President
New York Times journalist Adam Goldman defended his reporting on CNN Friday
His explosive NY Times report said a frustrated Rosenstein discussed using his phone to tape discussions with Trump in order to document Oval Office chaos
That, the Times said, would generate proof that Trump was unfit for office and should be removed via the 25th Amendment
Rosenstein reportedly made the comment to then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI lawyer Lisa Page
A former Obama-era Justice Department spokesman tweeted a suggestion that McCabe leaked the tale to the Times in a ‘dangerous game’
By MEGAN SHEETS and DAVID MARTOSKO
DAILYMAIL.COM
22 September 2018
A New York Times reporter has responded to Rod Rosenstein’s claims that he was joking when he said he wanted to wear a wire to secretly record President Donald Trump, saying: ‘This wasn’t a flippant remark.’
A New York Times report Friday claimed the Deputy Attorney General had discussed the possibility of recruiting members of Trump’s Cabinet to declare him unfit for the job with other Justice and FBI sources.
Rosenstein and several Justice Department officials have said the comment was made as a joke, and that the AG does not actually believe Trump should be removed from office via the Constitution’s 25th Amendment.
However, New York Times journalist Adam Goldman defended his reporting, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper Friday: ‘[Rosenstein] was, in fact, very serious. And the circumstances in which it was described to me are different now than what’s being put out I guess by the government.’
Goldman went on: ‘But, you know, it’s important that your listeners understand something. That as I was pursuing this story for a very long time, people were reluctant to talk about it, because of the gravity of the story.
‘There was concern that if it got out, that, you know, Rosenstein had wanted to actually, you know, wear a wire, and suggested Andy McCabe, the acting director at the time wear a wire, that Rob might get fired. People were sincerely concerned about this. Not because he made a flip remark. Because of the seriousness surrounding the remark.’
Rosenstein disputed the New York Times account on Friday, and a Justice Department official who was reportedly in the room when Rosenstein talked about using the 25th Amendment to end the Trump presidency says he was being sarcastic.
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