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Firing Rosenstein obstruction of justice, lawmaker says

In this AFP file photo taken on May 23, 2018, US President Donald Trump speaks with Rod Rosenstein (R), US Deputy Attorney General, during a roundtable discussion on immigration at Morrelly Homeland Security Center in Bethpage, New York.

US President Donald Trump has been warned over an attempt to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein amid a probe into the billionaire’s ties with Russia.

California Democratic Representative Ted Lieu told MSNBC on Saturday that sacking the official who appointed special counsel Bob Mueller would amount to obstruction of justice.

"You just had Paul Manafort flip, you had Michael Cohen, his longtime lawyer, flip," he said. "And then all of a sudden we see these sources talking about what Rod Rosenstein said."

According to a New York Times report earlier in the day, Rosenstein has proposed secretly recording conversations in the Oval Office and discussed Cabinet officials potentially invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president.

He has dismissed the report as “inaccurate” and “factually incorrect.”

"But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment," he said in a statement released by the Justice Department.

An investigation into Trump’s possible collusion with the Kremlin appears to be getting closer to bearing results as the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort has pleaded guilty to two federal charges, which could implicate somebody up the chain, namely President Trump.

Manafort, who has close ties with Russian oligarchs, was involved in the infamous Trump Tower meeting where dirt on Hillary Clinton was promised.

Cohen, Trump's longtime fixer, made payments during the 2016 campaign to two women – adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal – to silence them from speaking publicly about affairs they had with Trump.

The investigation seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the 2016 election.

Russia has denied meddling in the election as well as being in possession of any damaging information on the US president.


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