Deputy US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announces the grand jury indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officers

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election, is due to meet with Donald Trump on Thursday amid reports he is “expecting to be fired”.

Mr Rosenstein, the number two official at the Justice Department, verbally resigned to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Axios reported.

A second source told Axios that Rosenstein is “expecting to be fired” so he plans to step down.

Other reports suggested that Mr Rosenstein would force Mr trump to fire him, if that was what was going to happen.

Trump faces mounting pressure from the investigation by Mr Mueller, who is looking into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Rosenstein assumed supervision of the probe after his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recused himself because of his own contacts with Russia’s ambassador to Washington while serving as a Trump campaign adviser became public.

There was widespread speculation that TMr rump would fire Mr Rosenstein after a New York Times report on Friday said in 2017 he had suggested secretly recording Mr Trump and recruiting Cabinet members to invoke a constitutional amendment to remove him from the office.

The Times said none of those proposals came to fruition. Mr Rosenstein denied the report as “inaccurate and factually incorrect.”

Reuters