A former federal prosecutor who worked with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein explained during an MSNBC panel why his alleged comment about wearing a wire when speaking with Donald Trump was likely made in jest — but may have misled those around him.
"Rosenstein, who I worked with, is a very dry guy," former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said. "He has the ability to say something where he's being sarcastic and to look deadly serious."
"For people who were perhaps new to working with him in a very tense situation, Rod's sarcastic response might have come off as serious," she added.
The ex-prosecutor noted that Rosenstein issued a denial of the New York Times' report claiming he floated invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office and suggested she believes him, calling the deputy attorney general a "straight shooter."
"Before we all decide that the president will accept this at face value, I think we need to contemplate that they've increasingly had a good relationship and the president may see this exactly the way that Rosenstein does," Vance said. "And so perhaps it will end there."
"If it does lead to Rosenstein's firing," she added, "it will do incalculable damage to the [special counsel Robert] Mueller investigation."
Watch below, via MSNBC: