Rod Rosenstein to meet Trump Thursday after morning drama at White House

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will meet with President Donald Trump Thursday amid questions about his fate in theadministration after the New York Times

reported he secretly suggested recording the President and weighed forcibly removing him from office.

Trump, speaking in New York, said Monday he spoke with Rosenstein earlier in the day and anticipated their meeting at the White House once he returned from the United Nations General Assembly.

That statement capped off a tumultuous morning in Washington when it was, at times, unclear if the deputy attorney general still had his job. Rosenstein, who had a previously scheduled meeting with senior officials at the White House Monday, met with chief of staff John Kelly beforehand to discuss the confusion over his resignation.

Kelly told associates Monday that Rosenstein had offered to resign Friday and he had accepted. There were serious discussions among senior White House officials about his resignation over the weekend, but Trump was more focused on the drama surrounding his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, one source familiar with the President's thinking told CNN.

Rosenstein has emphatically denied that he ever sought to record Trump or weighed invoking the 25th Amendment to force him from office, issuing multiple statements calling the story "inaccurate and factually incorrect."

But Rosenstein overestimated how angry Trump would be after The New York Times published its reporting, leading him to offer his resignation to Kelly after the story published Friday. A source familiar with his thinking told CNN that Rosenstein expected to be fired by Trump on Monday.

While Trump asked associates in the hours after the story was published if he should "just fire him," Trump was also skeptical because the information reportedly came from memoranda written by FBI officials including former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whom Trump despises and frequently tells people isn't trustworthy. Although Trump used to remark often that Rosenstein was no ally of his, their relationship has improved in recent months.

Rosenstein oversees the special counsel's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether any Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian officials. If Rosenstein leaves, it would spark immediate questions about the long-term job security of special counsel Robert Mueller. Noel Francisco, the solicitor general, would take on oversight of Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.