Remember the uproar caused when former Attorney General Loretta Lynch met privately on an airport tarmac for a few minutes with former President Bill Clinton during the 2016 campaign?
Today, President Trump spoke with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is in charge of the Russia investigation, for over 30 minutes onboard Air Force One, and no one has said much about it.
Trump said he had a “good talk” with Rosenstein and has no plans to fire him in the immediate future.
“The press wants to know, ‘what did you talk about?’ But we had a very good talk, I will say it,” Trump said during a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Orlando.
Before the flight to Orlando, Trump said he had a “very good relationship” with Rosenstein.
“I actually have a good relationship — other than there’s been no collusion folks, no collusion,” Trump told reporters, using a phrase he often employs to describe the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, which Rosenstein oversees at the Justice Department.
Rosenstein has been in the spotlight for several weeks after The New York Times reported that he discussed secretly taping the president and recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment in conversations last year.
Rosenstein has vigorously denied the report that prompted wide speculation that he could resign or be fired.
Trump has at times criticized Rosenstein and his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, over the Russia investigation. It was Rosenstein who last year appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian election interference, including whether there was any collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.