CNN reports the White House is formulating a plan to attack Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, drafting talking points to paint him too conflicted to continue overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and creating an excuse for the president to fire him.
The talking points are still in their preliminary form, and not yet finalized, people familiar with their preparation said. The White House and the Justice Department declined to comment.
Already, a number of Trump's associates have called for Rosenstein's firing in appearances on television and in public remarks over the past few days, but not all of them did so at the request of the White House.
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Trump is still livid about the raid on his private attorney Michael Cohen -- "He'll be pissed about it until he dies," another source said -- and he and his allies are increasingly convinced that Mueller and Rosenstein have overstepped their bounds.
One area of conflict the White House wants its surrogates to highlight: Rosenstein's role as a key witness to the [James] Comey firing, sources said. Rosenstein wrote the memo justifying Comey's dismissal. It centered on his conduct in investigating Hillary Clinton's use of private email.
In a somewhat illogical pairing, the White House is also looking for Trump's allies to cast Rosenstein and Comey as close colleagues -- even though Rosenstein helped provide the basis for Comey's firing.
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While many of Trump's friends and staffers have discouraged him from firing anyone in the past, that has shifted in the wake of the Cohen raid, even though it was carried out by the Southern District of New York and not Mueller's team.
Nevertheless, multiple Trump allies have agreed with the President's thinking that Mueller has overstepped his mandate and that someone should be held accountable.
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An administration official says all of the outside voices calling for Rosenstein's firing have been compiled and given to the president, though much of the action has come on the airwaves of Fox News, which Trump views regularly.
Meanwhile, reporters spotted Rosenstein leaving the White House Thursday.
The White House said the meeting was arranged to discuss “routine [Justice] Department business.”
White House is prepping an effort to undermine Rosenstein (CNN)