Was Rod Rosenstein joking when he said he should wear a wire and invoke the 25th amendment against Trump?

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. NBC/CQ-Roll Call. 

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein claims he was joking when he told Andrew McCabe that he would wear a wire in an attempt to invoke the 25th amendment to remove Donald Trump from office. NBC News. The New York Times reported that Rosenstein had discussed with acting FBI director Andrew McCabe and disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page an attempt to remove Trump from office using the 25th amendment in the spring of 2017. NBC's source says the remark was sarcastic and Rosenstein said today that there was no case for using the 25th amendment to remove President Trump. Rosenstein also denied that the New York Times report was accurate. President Trump has yet to comment on the matter. 

My Comment:

I'm not sure who to believe in this case. I don't really trust the New York Times or NBC News, but they are the primary sources for both reports. I don't know who is telling the truth and who is lying. I can see a case for both interpretations. I do expect both outlets to do whatever they can to hurt President Trump. 

I do have to say that if Rod Rosenstein was just joking he picked a hell of a time to do so and might still be fired for it. Even joking about wiretapping the President of the United States is a huge problem. It's simply not done. Given the real threats revealed by these articles and the fact that Trump has had real problems with his underlings undermining him, he definitely put his job at risk even if it was sarcastic. 

However, this isn't just about Rod Rosenstein. If it is true that McCabe, Page and others were seriously discussing wiretapping the president and trying to invoke the 25th amendment it's hard to see this as anything other than a conspiracy against the President. Especially considering there is no basis for using the 25th amendment on President Trump. 

This raises some pretty serious questions. First of all, did this conspiracy find any support beyond McCabe and Page? Are there any other members of Trump's cabinet that went along with it? Was the conspiracy broken up after McCabe was fired and Page was reassigned? Is President Trump still at risk? These are some very big problems and need to be resolved immediately. 

As for Rosenstein, his job might be at risk, regardless if he was joking. The right thing for him to do after that conversation, if he was joking or not, was to immediately report it to President Trump. If he did so he might have saved his job. If he didn't I can't see Donald Trump keeping him on. Even if he wasn't part of the effort to remove President Trump, he didn't do anything about it either. That alone is enough to fire him. If he isn't gone in the next few weeks we can guess that he did the right thing and reported this to Trump. 

I do worry that this might be a trap for Trump. If he does fire Rosenstein it's very likely that congress will not approve a successor, especially if his boss Jeff Sessions goes as well. That will cripple Trump's attempt to clean up Washington and could have greater risks for him as well. 

There is always the fear that if Trump fires Rosenstein, Sessions or Mueller, Trump could be impeached for obstruction of justice. The legal basis for that is murky at best but I don't think that will stop the Democrats. They are banking on taking back the house in the November elections and if they do they will use any excuse they can to try and remove Trump. I doubt Trump will want to give them any ammo to do so. My guess is Rosenstein is safe for now, but I could be wrong...