Solicitor General Noel Francisco is most likely next in line now that Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Rod Rosenstein has either resigned or will be imminently fired as is being currently speculated. President Donald Trump could, however, appoint someone else to fill the role, at least as acting DAG and temporarily.

Axios earlier reported that Rosenstein intends to do exactly that. Per their report late Monday morning:

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly in anticipation of being fired by President Trump, according to a source with direct knowledge. Per a second source with direct knowledge: “He’s expecting to be fired,” so he plans to step down.

Disputing Axios’ reporting, however, CNN claims that Rosenstein simply expects he’ll be fired soon. Either way he is out.

Eyebrows were initially raised on Friday when the New York Times published a controversial story wherein Rosenstein apparently suggested wearing a wire into the White House and discussed invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump. While Rosenstein has issued denials and a Department of Justice spokesperson called the “wire” remark sarcastic, many nonetheless saw the Times story as a pretext for the president to fire Rosenstein. Despite the veracity of the above-mentioned reporting, one thing is clear: Rosenstein certainly felt the pressure after the Times piece ran.

To be clear: according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Solicitor General Francisco is the one who should move up the chain to take Rosenstein’s job according to the agency’s longstanding order of succession. (The previous number three person in the department, Rachel Brand, resigned in February and so far the Trump administration has not appointed her replacement.)

A source close to Rosenstein disputes the Axios report that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has verbally resigned, @LauraAJarrett reports. The source says that Rosenstein expects he is being fired. Noel Francisco, the solicitor general, would take on oversight of the Mueller probe. — erica orden (@eorden) September 24, 2018

Bare in mind, Trump could appoint someone else to take over the role, but as of now, Noel is next up, according to all reports. And, even in the event Trump names someone else, that may not matter much insofar as all things Russia and Mueller are concerned. As University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck noted late Monday morning:

Just to be clear, anyone @realDonaldTrump names as Acting Deputy AG would not be in the line of succession to be Acting AG, and so wouldn’t supervise Mueller. Only a new, Senate-conformed Deputy AG would displace Francisco as Acting AG for all things Russia… https://t.co/V7xDm08iMz — Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) September 24, 2018

Here are five things to know about Francisco now that Rosenstein is out.



1. He’s a Movement Conservative Through and Through