'Slow-Moving Saturday Night Massacre' on Hold After Rosenstein Emerges from White House With Job Intact

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Update:

While numerous news outlets reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein expected to be fired when he was summoned to the White House on Monday, Rosenstein left the White House with his job intact after a private meeting with President Donald Trump's chief of staff John Kelly.

Shortly following Monday's meeting, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced in a statement that Rosenstein will meet with Trump on Thursday—the same day Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is set to testify before the Senate about her sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

"Because the president is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, D.C.," Sanders said.

While Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Monday, invoking the firing of top DOJ officials during the Nixon presidency, warned the latest development's had the feeling of a "slow-moving Saturday night massacre," all of the rapid-fire and conflicting speculation about whether Rosenstein would resign or be fired turned out to be premature.

Earlier:

Just days after the New York Times reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested secretly recording President Donald Trump and recruiting cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment, Rosenstein was summoned to the White House on Monday where he reportedly expects to be fired.

While reports relying on White House sources are claiming that Rosenstein is going to the White House to offer his resignation, Justice Department sources close to Rosenstein offer a conflicting version and say that the deputy attorney general will refuse to resign and force the White House to fire him.

"Some news organizations reported that Rosenstein had submitted a verbal resignation to White House officials," NPR reported on Monday. "The situation was confused and unclear."

As NBC News Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams reported late Monday morning, there is much that remains unknown and several plausible scenarios could be playing out:

Whether Rosenstein resigns or forces the White House to fire him matters for a number of reasons. As the Washington Post's Aaron Blake pointed out, "If Rosenstein forces Trump to fire him, Trump might have to fight legally to appoint" an acting deputy attorney general.

"Making Trump fire him would be a good way to get a parting shot by Rosenstein," Blake adds. "Resigning, on the other hand, gives Trump everything he wants, both politically and procedurally."

Additionally, if the White House fires Rosenstein, more than 400,000 Americans have pledged to take to the streets in nearly 1,000 cities in protest.