Rod Rosenstein will not meet with House lawmakers Thursday

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will not meet with House lawmakers Thursday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Rep. Mark Meadows, North Carolina Republican, said last week two House committees investigating the FBI and Justice Department could meet with Mr. Rosenstein Oct. 11. But an aide to one of those committees told The Washington Times that no meeting date has been scheduled.

“We have many questions for Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and expect answers to those questions,” a House Judiciary Committee aide said. “There is not, at this time, a confirmed date for a potential meeting.”

Mr. Meadows, a member of the Judiciary Committee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It is not clear if a meeting will take place before the mid-term elections next month.

Republican lawmakers want to speak with Mr. Rosenstein after a bombshell report from the New York Times said he suggested secretly recording President Trump and using the 25th Amendment to remove him from the Oval Office.

Mr. Rosenstein has repeatedly denied the report, calling it “factually inaccurate.” A Justice Department official said the wiretapping comment was made in jest.

But Mr. Meadows told The Hill last week that the deputy attorney general should appear before the committees and address the report.

“Even though I’ve been a strong critic, I think he has to have the ability to come before us and say what he did say or didn’t say,” the congressman said.

Some conservative lawmakers, including Mr. Meadows and Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, suggest that they will move to impeach Mr. Rosenstein or hold him in contempt if he does not testify.

The New York Times report set off a fury of speculation on whether Mr. Rosenstein would be fired or resign from the Justice Department, where he oversees special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

However, Mr. Trump ended weeks of speculation Monday when he confirmed that he would not fire the second-highest ranking official at the Justice Department.

Mr. Rosenstein accompanied Mr. Trump aboard Air Force One as the two traveled to Orlando, Florida, to attend a law enforcement conference. They spoke for about 45 minutes, discussing law enforcement, border security and violent crime in Chicago, according to White House spokesman Hogan Gidley.

The president said he had a “great” conversation with Mr. Rosenstein and that they “get along very well.”