In this photo from Tuesday, June 13, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, where he said he’s seen no basis for firing Robert Mueller, the former FBI director he appointed as special counsel to oversee an investigation into potential coordination between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

I think we’ve returned to the countdown until Rod Rosenstein is ejected from Department of Justice.

President Trump has called Rosenstein, FBI director Christopher Wray, and DNI Dan Coates to a “routine” meeting at the White House at 3 p.m. today. The subject is their response to Congressional inquiries and, we can speculate, the investigation we posted on yesterday.

JUST IN: President Trump will meet with Deputy AG Rosenstein, Director of National Intelligence Coates and FBI Director Wray at the White House at 3 p.m. ET to discuss their response to numerous congressional requests, Sarah Sanders tells NBC News – @kwelkernbc

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) May 21, 2018

In terms of documents, we can be sure that the issues will be numerous outstanding requests by Devin Nunes and Bob Goodlatte along with Chuck Grassley’s demand from Friday. If you want a hint at the way this is going to go, the below clip is from the swearing-in ceremony of Gina Haspel as Director of Central Intelligence.

Trump thanks "very courageous man" Devin Nunes for attending confirmation of incoming CIA Director Gina Haspel: "Thank you very much Devin for being here. I appreciate it." pic.twitter.com/jCrFQt6EHZ

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) May 21, 2018

And you can bet if this happens, people who have been demanding that he declassify documents are going to be singing a different song, a song of mishandling classified information and obstruction of justice.

Well then order their release. Declassify relevant FISA applications and associated documents. Let’s see the evidence. You have the power. But I somehow suspect that the game here is to tweet to feed conspiracy theories, not to discover truth. https://t.co/PiNKVvg1dz

— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 20, 2018

The improper surveillance of Trump’s campaign staff either happened or it didn’t.

"Trump was spied on" went from "tin foil hat conspiracy theory" to "totally justified, of course" in truly record time. https://t.co/MlcpuLpyxq

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 21, 2018

If it did, people need to be fired. If it didn’t, then that needs to be known, too. Robert Mueller is either operating within his charter or not. Keeping secret the extent of FBI surveillance serves no purpose. Keeping Mueller’s scope of investigation secret is simply without precedent. It is like he’s running the Bureau of Secret Crime.

Trump needs to clearly and unambiguously impart to Rosenstein and to Wray and, to a lesser extent to Coates who has been used as a cat’s paw by the former, that this stupid game they are playing of classifying stuff that is embarrassing to their agencies has to stop. He needs to remind them that the leaks to the media are coming out of their agencies, perhaps with their consent, and not Congress. He needs to bring to their attention that Congress has legal oversight authority that is not affected by DOJ and FBI policy or regulations and they need to respect that authority. And they need to respond to Congressional requests with alacrity, not sloth and indolence.

If Rosenstein and Wray can’t live with that, they need to pack their crap and get off the battlefield.