President Donald Trump told a rally on Friday that there was a "lingering stench" about what was being exposed at the US Justice Department and promised he was going to get rid of that just as his administration had gotten rid of bad people at the FBI.

Hours after the New York Times reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested last year secretly recording Trump at the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, Trump told a packed rally, "Just look at what is being exposed in our Justice Department."

"We have great people in the Department of Justice... But you've got some real bad ones. You've seen what's happened at the FBI. They're all gone," he told a rally for Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley.

"But there's a lingering stench and we're going to get rid of that, too."

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