The only one who could have leaked a story such as this, is Rosenstein. Everyone associated with Rosenstein leaks like a sieve. The fact that he has done nothing to stem these leaks, is reason enough for him to be fired. But his malfeasance goes far beyond mere leaking.
Well I’ve given up that speculating game, this is as Dan Bongino said the other day, “triple reverse inverse psychology” being deployed. I just throw out all possible theories I can think of. Could be team Mueller, could be McCabe, could be others who leaked that particular story. Could be one with motive and knowledge of the others who said
“go check so and so his/her notes will confirm” so you don;t even know if the facts are being spun truthfully. They will now try to characterize other people’s motives and evidence.
Bottom line though is we all know RR had no business running Mueller, probably a large part of the NYT story is true even if it is an attempted trap, and if POTUS were to appoint an SP (which I think he may end up doing at some point, maybe after midterms) RR would not fare very well in the end. So, better he resigns now, maybe he flips and provides evidence, or maybe he resigns to try to salvage whatever Mueller has cobbled together because AFAIC, even the Mueller indictments/convictions have a shot at being overturned on appeal on the basis of bias or on 4th Amendment grounds or on the basis that the SP had no crime to investigate.