WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump last year at time when the White House had been plunged into chaos after the firing of FBI Director James Comey, according to a New York Times report Friday.

According to the report, which Rosenstein strongly denied Friday, the deputy attorney general also suggested wearing a wire during encounters with the president while proposing the recruitment of other administration officials to support the president's removal.

“The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” Rosenstein 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.”

The report comes after an opinion piece, authored by an unnamed Trump administration official, was published this month in The New York Times saying that Cabinet members had "whispered" about invoking the 25th Amendment because of Trump's increasing erratic behavior.

The amendment, ratified in 1967, created a legal mechanism for designating a head of state when the president is disabled or dead. It also formalized the historical practice for the vice president to permanently take over if the president dies or resigns and gives the president and Congress shared power to replace a vice president.

McCabe memos

In Friday's report, the newspaper cited unidentified sources briefed on meetings involving Rosenstein and notes memorializing the discussions drafted by then acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

McCabe, who was dismissed earlier this year by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has shared private memos that he authored from his time at the bureau with Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.

In a statement Friday, McCabe’s attorneys said they did not know how the contents of the memos were shared with reporters.

“Andrew McCabe drafted memos to memorialize significant discussions he had with high level officials and preserved them so he would have an accurate, contemporaneous record of those discussions,” McCabe’s attorneys said.

“When he was interviewed by the special counsel more than a year ago, he gave all of his memos – classified and unclassified – to the special counsel's office. A set of those memos remained at the FBI at the time of his departure in late January 2018. He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos."

The White House did not immediately respond to the report, but Donald Trump Jr., suggested the report was evidence of an effort to compromise his father.

"Shocked!!! Absolutely Shocked!!!" the president's son said, feigning surprise. "Ohhh, who are we kidding at this point? No one is shocked that these guys would do anything in their power to undermine @realdonaldtrump."

One of about a half dozen people who were parties to the Rosenstein discussions referenced by the newspaper, recalled a reference to using a "wire."

The person, who declined to be identified, described Rosenstein's comment as "sarcastic" and said that there was no real intention of recording the president.

Nevertheless, the explosive report was likely to only widen the existing chasm between the Justice Department and Trump, who has made no secret of his disdain for both Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose recusal from the ongoing Russia investigation resulted in Rosenstein appointment of Mueller.

New trouble for DOJ

Conservative lawmakers also have targeted Rosenstein, once pushing for his impeachment earlier this year for what they described as failing to comply with requests for documents related to the ongoing Mueller inquiry.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., one of Rosenstein's most vocal critics, cautioned that while McCabe's memos "should be viewed with extreme skepticism" the report could represent new trouble for the Justice Department.

"If this story is true, it underscores a gravely troubling culture at FBI/DOJ and the need for FULL transparency," Meadows said in a tweet. "Declassify everything. Let Americans judge."

This week, Trump leveled his fiercest broadside yet against the Justice Department, saying in an interview with Hill.TV: "I don't have an attorney general. It's very sad."

The prospect of Trump using the report to initiate a shake-up at Justice that could upend the Mueller probe immediately put Democrats on edge.

“This story must not be used as a pretext for the corrupt purpose of firing Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein in order install an official who will allow the president to interfere with the special counsel’s investigation," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "Gens. Kelly, Mattis and numerous other White House and cabinet officials have been reported to say critical things of the president without being fired.”