Trump avoids Rosenstein issue

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump declined to say Tuesday whether he has confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, escalating pressure on the Justice Department as his White House negotiated rare access to classified documents for his congressional allies.

Asked before a private meeting with the president of South Korea whether he has confidence in Rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel's Russia investigation, he asked reporters to move on to another question.

"Excuse me, I have the president of South Korea here," Trump said. "He doesn't want to hear these questions, if you don't mind."

The comments came just before White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced a meeting to allow House Republicans to review highly classified information on the Russia probe will happen Thursday.

Sanders said FBI director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence director Dan Coats and Justice Department official Edward O'Callaghan will meet with House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes and House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Trey Gowdy.

Nunes, an ardent Trump supporter, has been demanding information on an FBI source in the Russia investigation, according to the Justice Department. And Trump has taken up the cause as the White House tries to combat the threat posed by special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Trump said Tuesday it would be a "disgrace" to the country if it's shown the FBI had spies in his campaign, and would "make probably every political event ever look like small potatoes."

In a tweet Sunday, Trump demanded the Justice Department investigate whether the FBI infiltrated his presidential campaign and "if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!"

Trump's demand alarmed some observers, who felt it not only violated presidential protocol but also could have a chilling effect on federal law enforcement or its use of informants.

In response to Trump's tweet, the Justice Department said it would expand an open, internal investigation into the ongoing Russia probe by examining whether there was any politically motivated surveillance. The White House then said Trump chief of staff John Kelly would organize the meeting to review the documents. But Sanders said no White House staffers -- including Kelly -- will be present at Thursday's meeting.

With the demand, Trump entered into the realm of applying presidential pressure on the Justice Department regarding an investigation into his own campaign -- a move few of his predecessors have made. He made it amid days of public venting about the special counsel investigation, which he has deemed a "witch hunt" he says has yielded no evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia.