President Donald Trump declined to say whether he would fire Rod Rosenstein, though the deputy attorney general offered the president his resignation in September. | Pool-Oliver Contreras/Getty Images White House Trump: Rosenstein belongs in jail because 'he never should have picked a special counsel'

President Donald Trump defended his decision to retweet a meme this week depicting his political opponents behind bars — including his sitting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — signaling more storm clouds for the embattled No. 2 at the Justice Department after what appeared to be a brief reprieve from Trump’s attacks.

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump was asked about the photoshopped image, which depicted targets of Trump attacks such as former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, Huma Abedin and James Comey overlaid with the text: “Now that Russian collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?” Tucked just above Obama's head in the photo is Rosenstein's, smaller than almost all the other individuals in the image.


Rosenstein belongs in jail, Trump said, because “he should have never picked a special counsel.”

Rosenstein is responsible for picking Mueller to lead an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election — a probe that now includes whether Trump sought to obstruct justice — following then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the investigation and Trump’s decision to fire Comey, then the FBI director.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

After his firing, Comey passed to the media memos detailing interactions he’d had with the president, including one in which Trump reportedly asked the FBI chief for his loyalty. The publication of details from Comey's memos helped prompt Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel, a move that has earned the ire of Trump.

The president has ramped up his attacks on the Russia investigation in recent days after finally submitting written responses to Mueller’s inquiries last week.

Trump has tweeted about the “witch hunt” a dozen times over the past several days as the investigation seems to be closing in on a few key figures in the probe, and after a former campaign aide reported to prison earlier this week on charges stemming from the investigation.

In a Thursday morning post to Twitter, Trump called the Mueller probe an "illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt" that has "shattered so many innocent lives."

In his interview with the Post, Trump declined to say whether he would fire Rosenstein, though the deputy attorney general offered the president his resignation in September, after it was reported that he may have sought to remove Trump from office.

Trump did, however, double down on his firing of Comey, a step the White House initially claimed the president took based on a recommendation from Rosenstein. Trump later conceded that he had made up his mind to fire Comey before receiving Rosenstein's recommendation and that it was the bureau's ongoing Russia investigation that was on his mind when he decided to dismiss the FBI director.

“Thank God I fired Comey,” Trump told the Post, invoking former FBI officials whom Trump felt were biased against him. “Because if I didn’t fire Comey, we wouldn’t know about [Andrew] McCabe, we wouldn’t know about [Peter] Strzok and his lover Lisa Page.”