U.S. Politics

[Tom Graves]

Comey is one of the conspirators that was discussing wearing a "wire" to entrap Trump.

Dear Comrade Storing,

You're wrong, of course.

Regardless, that's what an FBI Director should do when he has reason to believe a "President" is a traitor.

Do stop watching Fox News, OANN and NewsMax, and try to get your facts straight, Comrade Storing.

ME: Did James Comey discuss wearing a "wire" to entrap Trump?

GROK: No, there is no evidence that James Comey discussed or proposed wearing a recording device (commonly referred to as a "wire") to entrap President Trump. The incident often misattributed to Comey actually involved Rod Rosenstein, the then-Deputy Attorney General, who floated the idea in May 2017 amid concerns over Trump's firing of Comey as FBI Director. This was documented in a memo by Andrew McCabe, Comey's successor as Acting FBI Director.

Key Facts from the Incident

What Happened: Rosenstein suggested he could wear a wire during White House meetings with Trump to gather evidence on potential obstruction of justice related to Comey's dismissal and the ongoing Russia investigation. He also raised the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. McCabe's memo (released in 2019) described Rosenstein as serious about the wire idea, noting he believed it was feasible because he "was not searched when he entered the White House."
Comey's Role: Comey was not involved in this discussion—he had already been fired by Trump on May 9, 2017, just days before the conversation. The proposal stemmed from fallout over Comey's ouster, but Comey himself did not participate or advocate for it.

Public Revelation: The story emerged in September 2018 via a New York Times report, sparking backlash from Trump, who called it "treasonous." McCabe confirmed details in a 2019 60 Minutes interview, emphasizing Rosenstein's sincerity.

Legal Outcome: No charges resulted from this. Rosenstein testified in 2018 that he was exploring ways to preserve evidence, not entrap anyone, and described his comments as exploratory.

Context and Misconceptions

The confusion may arise because the episode is tied to the broader Trump-Russia probe, which Comey oversaw until his firing. Trump has repeatedly accused Comey of orchestrating investigations against him, but no records or testimonies link Comey to the wire proposal.

Recent 2025 developments (e.g., Comey's indictment for allegedly lying to Congress) relate to unrelated claims about the Russia probe, not this incident.

This event highlights tensions in the Trump administration's early days but does not involve Comey in any entrapment scheme.

. . . . . . .

The New York Times, 9/21/18

The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit.

Mr. Rosenstein made these suggestions in the spring of 2017 when Mr. Trump’s firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director plunged the White House into turmoil. Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, and revelations emerged that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide.

Mr. Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president’s dismissal of Mr. Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Rosenstein was caught off guard when Mr. Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used.

Mr. Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Mr. Trump and about the 25th Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and F.B.I. officials. Several people described the episodes in interviews over the past several months, insisting on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The people were briefed either on the events themselves or on memos written by F.B.I. officials, including Andrew G. McCabe, then the acting bureau director, that documented Mr. Rosenstein’s actions and comments.

None of Mr. Rosenstein’s proposals apparently came to fruition. It is not clear how determined he was about seeing them through, though he did tell Mr. McCabe that he might be able to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security and now the White House chief of staff, to mount an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment.

The extreme suggestions show Mr. Rosenstein’s state of mind in the disorienting days that followed Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Sitting in on Mr. Trump’s interviews with prospective F.B.I. directors and facing attacks for his own role in Mr. Comey’s firing, Mr. Rosenstein had an up-close view of the tumult. Mr. Rosenstein appeared conflicted, regretful and emotional, according to people who spoke with him at the time.

Mr. Rosenstein disputed this account.

“The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he said in a statement. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman also provided a statement from a person who was present when Mr. Rosenstein proposed wearing a wire. The person, who would not be named, acknowledged the remark but said Mr. Rosenstein made it sarcastically.

But according to the others who described his comments, Mr. Rosenstein not only confirmed that he was serious about the idea but also followed up by suggesting that other F.B.I. officials who were interviewing to be the bureau’s director could also secretly record Mr. Trump.

Mr. McCabe, who was later fired from the F.B.I., declined to comment. His memos have been turned over to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in the investigation into whether Trump associates conspired with Russia’s election interference, according to a lawyer for Mr. McCabe. “A set of those memos remained at the F.B.I. at the time of his departure in late January 2018,” the lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich, said of his client. “He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos.”

The revelations about Mr. Rosenstein come as Mr. Trump has unleashed another round of attacks in recent days on federal law enforcement, saying in an interview with the newspaper The Hill that he hopes his assaults on the F.B.I. turn out to be “one of my crowning achievements,” and that he only wished he had terminated Mr. Comey sooner.

“If I did one mistake with Comey, I should have fired him before I got here. I should have fired him the day I won the primaries,” Mr. Trump said. “I should have fired him right after the convention. Say, ‘I don’t want that guy.’ Or at least fired him the first day on the job.”

Days after ascending to the role of the nation’s No. 2 law enforcement officer, Mr. Rosenstein was thrust into a crisis.

On a brisk May day, Mr. Rosenstein and his boss, Mr. Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation because of his role as a prominent Trump campaign supporter, joined Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. The president informed them of his plan to oust Mr. Comey. To the surprise of White House aides who were trying to talk the president out of it, Mr. Rosenstein embraced the idea, even offering to write the memo about the Clinton email inquiry. He turned it in shortly after.

A day later, Mr. Trump announced the firing, and White House aides released Mr. Rosenstein’s memo, labeling it the basis for Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Democrats sharply criticized Mr. Rosenstein, accusing him of helping to create a cover story for the president to rationalize the termination.

“You wrote a memo you knew would be used to perpetuate a lie,” Senator Christopher Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, wrote on Twitter. "You own this debacle.”

The president’s reliance on his memo caught Mr. Rosenstein by surprise, and he became angry at Mr. Trump, according to people who spoke to Mr. Rosenstein at the time. He grew concerned that his reputation had suffered harm.

A determined Mr. Rosenstein began telling associates that he would ultimately be “vindicated” for his role in the matter. One week after the firing, Mr. Rosenstein met with Mr. McCabe and at least four other senior Justice Department officials, in part to explain his role in the situation.

During their discussion, Mr. Rosenstein expressed frustration at how Mr. Trump had conducted the search for a new F.B.I. director, saying the president was failing to take the candidate interviews seriously. A handful of politicians and law enforcement officials, including Mr. McCabe, were under consideration.

To Mr. Rosenstein, the hiring process was emblematic of broader dysfunction stemming from the White House. He said both the process and the administration itself were in disarray, according to two people familiar with the discussion.

Mr. Rosenstein then raised the idea of wearing a recording device, or “wire,” as he put it, to secretly tape the president when he visited the White House. One participant asked whether Mr. Rosenstein was serious, and he replied animatedly that he was.

If not him, then Mr. McCabe or other F.B.I. officials interviewing with Mr. Trump for the job could perhaps wear a wire or otherwise record the president, Mr. Rosenstein offered. White House officials never checked his phone when he arrived for meetings there, Mr. Rosenstein added, implying it would be easy to secretly record Mr. Trump.

Mr. Rosenstein mentioned the possibility of wearing a wire on at least one other occasion, the people said, though they did not provide details.

The suggestion itself was remarkable. While informants or undercover agents regularly use concealed listening devices to surreptitiously gather evidence for federal investigators, they are typically targeting drug kingpins and Mafia bosses in criminal investigations, not a president viewed as ineffectively conducting his duties.

In the end, the idea went nowhere, the officials said. But they called Mr. Rosenstein’s comments an example of how erratically he was behaving while he was taking part in the interviews for a replacement F.B.I. director, considering the appointment of a special counsel and otherwise running the day-to-day operations of the more than 100,000 people at the Justice Department.

At least two meetings took place on May 16 involving both Mr. McCabe and Mr. Rosenstein, the people familiar with the events of the day said. Mr. Rosenstein brought up the 25th Amendment during the first meeting of Justice Department officials, they said. A memo about the second meeting written by one participant, Lisa Page, a lawyer who worked for Mr. McCabe at the time, did not mention the topic.

Mr. Rosenstein’s suggestion about the 25th Amendment was similarly a sensitive topic. The amendment allows for the vice president and a majority of cabinet officials to declare the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Merely conducting a straw poll, even if Mr. Kelly and Mr. Sessions were on board, would be risky if another administration official were to tell the president, who could fire everyone involved to end the effort.

Mr. McCabe told other F.B.I. officials of his conversation with Mr. Rosenstein. None of the people interviewed said that they knew of him ever consulting Mr. Kelly or Mr. Sessions.

The episode is the first known instance of a named senior administration official weighing the 25th Amendment. Unidentified others have been said to discuss it, including an unnamed senior administration official who wrote an Op-Ed for The New York Times. That person’s identity is unknown to journalists in the Times news department.

Some of the details in Mr. McCabe’s memos suggested that Mr. Rosenstein had regrets about the firing of Mr. Comey. During a May 12 meeting with Mr. McCabe, Mr. Rosenstein was upset and emotional, Mr. McCabe wrote, and said that he wished Mr. Comey were still at the F.B.I. so he could bounce ideas off him.

Mr. Rosenstein also asked F.B.I. officials on May 14, five days after Mr. Comey’s firing, about calling him for advice about a special counsel. The officials responded that such a call was a bad idea because Mr. Comey was no longer in the government. And they were surprised, believing that the idea contradicted Mr. Rosenstein’s stated reason for backing Mr. Comey’s dismissal — that he had shown bad judgment in the Clinton email inquiry.

Mr. Rosenstein, 53, is a lifelong public servant. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, he clerked for a federal judge before joining the Justice Department in 1990 and was appointed United States attorney for Maryland.

Mr. Rosenstein also considered appointing as special counsel James M. Cole, himself a former deputy attorney general, three of the people said. Mr. Cole would have made an even richer target for Mr. Trump’s ire than has Mr. Mueller, a lifelong Republican: Mr. Cole served four years as the No. 2 in the Justice Department during the Obama administration and worked as a private lawyer representing one of Mrs. Clinton’s longtime confidants, Sidney Blumenthal.

Mr. Cole and Mr. Rosenstein have known each other for years. Mr. Cole, who declined to comment, was Mr. Rosenstein’s supervisor early in his Justice Department career when he was prosecuting public corruption cases.

Mr. Trump and his allies have repeatedly attacked Mr. Rosenstein and have also targeted Mr. McCabe, who was fired in March for failing to be forthcoming when he was interviewed in an inspector general investigation around the time of Mr. Comey’s dismissal. The inspector general later referred the matter to federal prosecutors in Washington.

The president’s allies have seized on Mr. McCabe’s lack of candor to paint a damning picture of the F.B.I. under Mr. Comey and assert that the Russia investigation is tainted.

The Justice Department denied a request in late July from Mr. Trump’s congressional allies to release Mr. McCabe’s memos, citing a continuing investigation that the lawmakers believed to be Mr. Mueller’s. Mr. Rosenstein not only supervises that investigation but is also considered by the president’s lawyers as a witness for their defense because he sought the dismissal of Mr. Comey, which is being investigated as possible obstruction of justice.

[Royell Storing]

  Wear a wire and use the 25th Amendment on the grounds of "chaos". Do you hear yourself?

[Tom Graves]

Wear a wire and use the 25th Amendment on the grounds of "chaos". Do you hear yourself?

Dear Comrade Storing,

1) Rosenstein, or Comey?

2) Regardless, The Traitorous Orange Bird (rhymes with "Xxxx") has been wittingly or unwittingly spreading chaos for "former" KGB counterintelligence officer Vladimir Putin for nine years. That's why Putin installed him.

3) D'oh!


-- Tom

[Tom Graves]

So here's the deal.  There are so many laws that govern almost every aspect of our lives that if the DOJ or DA wants to find something, they will.  Particularly if the person is involved in a lot of complicated business transactions and other matters that are highly regulated.  Until they prosecuted Trump for petty nonsense, there was a kind of unwritten rule that they wouldn't go down that road because literally everyone would be subject to prosecution.  They had exercised discretion and common sense to decide when to expend the resource to prosecute.  When the Dems broke that rule to get Trump, they opened up a can of worms that has come back to bite them.  I can understand the downside of this endless cycle of lawfare, but like the use of nuclear weapons, if one side makes the decision to use it, then the opposition has no choice but to do the same.  Comey and James are guilty of crimes.  In past years, they likely would never have been charged but they are the ones who changed the rules of the system.  Now they are on the receiving end of the lawfare that they helped to unleash.

Dear Herr Schicklgruber I mean Herr Smith,

What "petty nonsense" are you referring to?

Trump University?

Defrauding banks, insurance companies, and the IRS?

Instigating a violent resurrection at the U.S. Capitol?

Sexually assaulting a woman in a department store's changing room?

[Fill in the blank]?

-- Tom

[Tom Graves]

Comey is a total dirt bag.

Dear Comrade Storing,

No, but people who are a combination of MAGAT and tinfoil-hat JFKA conspiracy theorist sure are.

-- Tom

[Tom Graves]

This stuff with Comey and James is ALL about Where the charges are brought. Virginia is better than NY, but both are loaded with biased judges and biased prospective jurors. Trump got railroaded in NY, knew it, and took it like a Man. Comey, James, and the Fake Newser's whine like babies when these people are now treated like common folk. Kimmel too. James is flat-out guiltier than sh*t. She lied on her loan application and when called on it whines about being a victim and NEVER DIRECTLY addresses the charges. Comey is just a flat-out dirt bag that cries like a wimp. Which he is. These people demand to be treated like deity. They ain't squat and in the real world at a real job would be ridiculed and laughed at 24-7. What we are seeing from Comey and James is no different than we saw from Fanni Willis when she stormed into that courtroom and waved papers at the sitting judge while she was being questioned. These are Prima Donna Sleaze Balls with literally no skill set to even merit the thought of such treatment.

Dear Comrade Storing,

Perhaps you missed this:

A September 2025 ProPublica report alleged that three members of former President Donald Trump's cabinet — Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Transportation Secretary Shawn Duffy, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin — each declared multiple homes as their primary residence on separate mortgage applications. This alleged practice was revealed after Trump accused political opponents of mortgage fraud for similar reasons.

Details of the ProPublica report

Contradictory claims: The report cited public loan records, real estate documents, and financial disclosures showing that the officials obtained separate mortgages in different locations, each designating the home as their primary residence.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer: Took out two primary-residence mortgages in quick succession for homes in Oregon and Arizona.

Shawn Duffy: Held primary-residence mortgages for homes in New Jersey and Washington, D.C..

Lee Zeldin: Declared primary residences for homes in Long Island and Washington, D.C..

Potential mortgage fraud: Lenders offer more favorable interest rates for a primary residence, so misrepresenting a property's occupancy status is a form of mortgage fraud. According to real estate experts cited by ProPublica, the practice of claiming multiple primary residences is often not illegal, but is rarely prosecuted and requires proof of intent to defraud.

Conflicting narratives: The report highlighted the "staggering" hypocrisy of the Trump administration, which has used mortgage fraud allegations as a political weapon against opponents.

Political opponents: The administration referred several opponents for Justice Department investigation based on similar mortgage fraud accusations, including Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Senator Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Cabinet officials: In contrast, a White House spokesperson asserted that the three cabinet members followed the law and were "fully compliant with all ethical obligations."

Official denials: All three cabinet members have denied any wrongdoing, with spokespeople offering explanations for the conflicting residency claims.

-- Tom

[Richard Smith]

Dear Comrade Storing,

You're wrong, of course.

Regardless, that's what an FBI Director should do when he has reason to believe a "President" is a traitor.

Do stop watching Fox News, OANN and NewsMax, and try to get your facts straight, Comrade Storing.

ME: Did James Comey discuss wearing a "wire" to entrap Trump?

GROK: No, there is no evidence that James Comey discussed or proposed wearing a recording device (commonly referred to as a "wire") to entrap President Trump. The incident often misattributed to Comey actually involved Rod Rosenstein, the then-Deputy Attorney General, who floated the idea in May 2017 amid concerns over Trump's firing of Comey as FBI Director. This was documented in a memo by Andrew McCabe, Comey's successor as Acting FBI Director.

Key Facts from the Incident

What Happened: Rosenstein suggested he could wear a wire during White House meetings with Trump to gather evidence on potential obstruction of justice related to Comey's dismissal and the ongoing Russia investigation. He also raised the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. McCabe's memo (released in 2019) described Rosenstein as serious about the wire idea, noting he believed it was feasible because he "was not searched when he entered the White House."
Comey's Role: Comey was not involved in this discussion—he had already been fired by Trump on May 9, 2017, just days before the conversation. The proposal stemmed from fallout over Comey's ouster, but Comey himself did not participate or advocate for it.

Public Revelation: The story emerged in September 2018 via a New York Times report, sparking backlash from Trump, who called it "treasonous." McCabe confirmed details in a 2019 60 Minutes interview, emphasizing Rosenstein's sincerity.

Legal Outcome: No charges resulted from this. Rosenstein testified in 2018 that he was exploring ways to preserve evidence, not entrap anyone, and described his comments as exploratory.

Context and Misconceptions

The confusion may arise because the episode is tied to the broader Trump-Russia probe, which Comey oversaw until his firing. Trump has repeatedly accused Comey of orchestrating investigations against him, but no records or testimonies link Comey to the wire proposal.

Recent 2025 developments (e.g., Comey's indictment for allegedly lying to Congress) relate to unrelated claims about the Russia probe, not this incident.

This event highlights tensions in the Trump administration's early days but does not involve Comey in any entrapment scheme.

. . . . . . .

The New York Times, 9/21/18

The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit.

Mr. Rosenstein made these suggestions in the spring of 2017 when Mr. Trump’s firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director plunged the White House into turmoil. Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, and revelations emerged that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide.

Mr. Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president’s dismissal of Mr. Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Rosenstein was caught off guard when Mr. Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used.

Mr. Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Mr. Trump and about the 25th Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and F.B.I. officials. Several people described the episodes in interviews over the past several months, insisting on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The people were briefed either on the events themselves or on memos written by F.B.I. officials, including Andrew G. McCabe, then the acting bureau director, that documented Mr. Rosenstein’s actions and comments.

None of Mr. Rosenstein’s proposals apparently came to fruition. It is not clear how determined he was about seeing them through, though he did tell Mr. McCabe that he might be able to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security and now the White House chief of staff, to mount an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment.

The extreme suggestions show Mr. Rosenstein’s state of mind in the disorienting days that followed Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Sitting in on Mr. Trump’s interviews with prospective F.B.I. directors and facing attacks for his own role in Mr. Comey’s firing, Mr. Rosenstein had an up-close view of the tumult. Mr. Rosenstein appeared conflicted, regretful and emotional, according to people who spoke with him at the time.

Mr. Rosenstein disputed this account.

“The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” he said in a statement. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman also provided a statement from a person who was present when Mr. Rosenstein proposed wearing a wire. The person, who would not be named, acknowledged the remark but said Mr. Rosenstein made it sarcastically.

But according to the others who described his comments, Mr. Rosenstein not only confirmed that he was serious about the idea but also followed up by suggesting that other F.B.I. officials who were interviewing to be the bureau’s director could also secretly record Mr. Trump.

Mr. McCabe, who was later fired from the F.B.I., declined to comment. His memos have been turned over to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in the investigation into whether Trump associates conspired with Russia’s election interference, according to a lawyer for Mr. McCabe. “A set of those memos remained at the F.B.I. at the time of his departure in late January 2018,” the lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich, said of his client. “He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos.”

The revelations about Mr. Rosenstein come as Mr. Trump has unleashed another round of attacks in recent days on federal law enforcement, saying in an interview with the newspaper The Hill that he hopes his assaults on the F.B.I. turn out to be “one of my crowning achievements,” and that he only wished he had terminated Mr. Comey sooner.

“If I did one mistake with Comey, I should have fired him before I got here. I should have fired him the day I won the primaries,” Mr. Trump said. “I should have fired him right after the convention. Say, ‘I don’t want that guy.’ Or at least fired him the first day on the job.”

Days after ascending to the role of the nation’s No. 2 law enforcement officer, Mr. Rosenstein was thrust into a crisis.

On a brisk May day, Mr. Rosenstein and his boss, Mr. Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation because of his role as a prominent Trump campaign supporter, joined Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. The president informed them of his plan to oust Mr. Comey. To the surprise of White House aides who were trying to talk the president out of it, Mr. Rosenstein embraced the idea, even offering to write the memo about the Clinton email inquiry. He turned it in shortly after.

A day later, Mr. Trump announced the firing, and White House aides released Mr. Rosenstein’s memo, labeling it the basis for Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Democrats sharply criticized Mr. Rosenstein, accusing him of helping to create a cover story for the president to rationalize the termination.

“You wrote a memo you knew would be used to perpetuate a lie,” Senator Christopher Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, wrote on Twitter. "You own this debacle.”

The president’s reliance on his memo caught Mr. Rosenstein by surprise, and he became angry at Mr. Trump, according to people who spoke to Mr. Rosenstein at the time. He grew concerned that his reputation had suffered harm.

A determined Mr. Rosenstein began telling associates that he would ultimately be “vindicated” for his role in the matter. One week after the firing, Mr. Rosenstein met with Mr. McCabe and at least four other senior Justice Department officials, in part to explain his role in the situation.

During their discussion, Mr. Rosenstein expressed frustration at how Mr. Trump had conducted the search for a new F.B.I. director, saying the president was failing to take the candidate interviews seriously. A handful of politicians and law enforcement officials, including Mr. McCabe, were under consideration.

To Mr. Rosenstein, the hiring process was emblematic of broader dysfunction stemming from the White House. He said both the process and the administration itself were in disarray, according to two people familiar with the discussion.

Mr. Rosenstein then raised the idea of wearing a recording device, or “wire,” as he put it, to secretly tape the president when he visited the White House. One participant asked whether Mr. Rosenstein was serious, and he replied animatedly that he was.

If not him, then Mr. McCabe or other F.B.I. officials interviewing with Mr. Trump for the job could perhaps wear a wire or otherwise record the president, Mr. Rosenstein offered. White House officials never checked his phone when he arrived for meetings there, Mr. Rosenstein added, implying it would be easy to secretly record Mr. Trump.

Mr. Rosenstein mentioned the possibility of wearing a wire on at least one other occasion, the people said, though they did not provide details.

The suggestion itself was remarkable. While informants or undercover agents regularly use concealed listening devices to surreptitiously gather evidence for federal investigators, they are typically targeting drug kingpins and Mafia bosses in criminal investigations, not a president viewed as ineffectively conducting his duties.

In the end, the idea went nowhere, the officials said. But they called Mr. Rosenstein’s comments an example of how erratically he was behaving while he was taking part in the interviews for a replacement F.B.I. director, considering the appointment of a special counsel and otherwise running the day-to-day operations of the more than 100,000 people at the Justice Department.

At least two meetings took place on May 16 involving both Mr. McCabe and Mr. Rosenstein, the people familiar with the events of the day said. Mr. Rosenstein brought up the 25th Amendment during the first meeting of Justice Department officials, they said. A memo about the second meeting written by one participant, Lisa Page, a lawyer who worked for Mr. McCabe at the time, did not mention the topic.

Mr. Rosenstein’s suggestion about the 25th Amendment was similarly a sensitive topic. The amendment allows for the vice president and a majority of cabinet officials to declare the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

Merely conducting a straw poll, even if Mr. Kelly and Mr. Sessions were on board, would be risky if another administration official were to tell the president, who could fire everyone involved to end the effort.

Mr. McCabe told other F.B.I. officials of his conversation with Mr. Rosenstein. None of the people interviewed said that they knew of him ever consulting Mr. Kelly or Mr. Sessions.

The episode is the first known instance of a named senior administration official weighing the 25th Amendment. Unidentified others have been said to discuss it, including an unnamed senior administration official who wrote an Op-Ed for The New York Times. That person’s identity is unknown to journalists in the Times news department.

Some of the details in Mr. McCabe’s memos suggested that Mr. Rosenstein had regrets about the firing of Mr. Comey. During a May 12 meeting with Mr. McCabe, Mr. Rosenstein was upset and emotional, Mr. McCabe wrote, and said that he wished Mr. Comey were still at the F.B.I. so he could bounce ideas off him.

Mr. Rosenstein also asked F.B.I. officials on May 14, five days after Mr. Comey’s firing, about calling him for advice about a special counsel. The officials responded that such a call was a bad idea because Mr. Comey was no longer in the government. And they were surprised, believing that the idea contradicted Mr. Rosenstein’s stated reason for backing Mr. Comey’s dismissal — that he had shown bad judgment in the Clinton email inquiry.

Mr. Rosenstein, 53, is a lifelong public servant. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, he clerked for a federal judge before joining the Justice Department in 1990 and was appointed United States attorney for Maryland.

Mr. Rosenstein also considered appointing as special counsel James M. Cole, himself a former deputy attorney general, three of the people said. Mr. Cole would have made an even richer target for Mr. Trump’s ire than has Mr. Mueller, a lifelong Republican: Mr. Cole served four years as the No. 2 in the Justice Department during the Obama administration and worked as a private lawyer representing one of Mrs. Clinton’s longtime confidants, Sidney Blumenthal.

Mr. Cole and Mr. Rosenstein have known each other for years. Mr. Cole, who declined to comment, was Mr. Rosenstein’s supervisor early in his Justice Department career when he was prosecuting public corruption cases.

Mr. Trump and his allies have repeatedly attacked Mr. Rosenstein and have also targeted Mr. McCabe, who was fired in March for failing to be forthcoming when he was interviewed in an inspector general investigation around the time of Mr. Comey’s dismissal. The inspector general later referred the matter to federal prosecutors in Washington.

The president’s allies have seized on Mr. McCabe’s lack of candor to paint a damning picture of the F.B.I. under Mr. Comey and assert that the Russia investigation is tainted.

The Justice Department denied a request in late July from Mr. Trump’s congressional allies to release Mr. McCabe’s memos, citing a continuing investigation that the lawmakers believed to be Mr. Mueller’s. Mr. Rosenstein not only supervises that investigation but is also considered by the president’s lawyers as a witness for their defense because he sought the dismissal of Mr. Comey, which is being investigated as possible obstruction of justice.

What an unhinged rambling.  There is zero credible evidence that Trump was a traitor.  None.  Your Russians pulled a fast one on Hillary and company and they took the bait.  Comey knew this whole thing was baseless.  It was used to damage and undermine Trump for three years.  Comey is the one who committed treason.  He just carried water for the political establishment who gave him power.   

[Richard Smith]

Perhaps it's not "Instant Karma" per Lennon but it is Karma poetry just the same when the chickens come home to roost:

"When powerful people cheat to get better loans, it comes at the expense of hardworking people. Everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank to get a mortgage, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them. There simply cannot be different rules for different people."

Letitia James - February 2024 post on X attacking President Donald Trump.