Conversely, we put less stock in an account provided by the Justice Department from an official present for one event described in the article: one of the times Mr. Rosenstein suggested secretly recording President Trump. This official, whose identity was shared with The Times, confirmed the remark but said it was interpreted as sarcasm.

But because this official would not go on the record to back the interpretation, and because Justice Department officials did not square the official’s confirmation with Mr. Rosenstein’s blanket denial of the article, we concluded that it was less credible than the other reporting that pointed to Mr. Rosenstein being serious.

We included the unnamed official’s interpretation to be fair, a factor we care about deeply, and to help readers draw their own conclusions about the events.

Why wasn’t there more skepticism?

The issue many, including me, take with The New York Times article is not that it presented facts it had obtained from an anonymous source, but that it presented these facts too credulously. — Christopher Cole, on Twitter

FISCUS When we considered the depth and breadth of what the reporting showed, we came to an unmistakable conclusion: Mr. Rosenstein was flailing in the days after the firing of Mr. Comey as F.B.I. director. We had done earlier stories on this topic, which showed that he was shaken in those days and troubled that the White House had used a memo he wrote to justify the dismissal.

The details also firmed up our understanding of the time. We were told of multiple instances of Mr. Rosenstein talking about wearing a wire into the Oval Office, and specifics about him bringing up the 25th Amendment, including the names of cabinet officials he thought he could get on board.

Most influential for me, perhaps, was Mr. Rosenstein’s verbal confirmation of his seriousness. In a meeting where he first brought up the idea of wearing a wire, another official asked if he was serious. He said yes. And he also suggested that F.B.I. officials interviewing with Mr. Trump to run the bureau could wear wires, too.