Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker faces grilling from House Democrats
franckreporter/iStock(WASHINGTON) — Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Friday defended his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation during a highly anticipated grilling by House Democrats, testifying that he had not shared information about the investigation with President Donald Trump or any senior White House officials.
He also defended his decision not to recuse himself from oversight of Mueller’s probe.
“I have not interfered in any way with the special counsel’s investigation,” Whitaker said under combative questioning by House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat.
Whitaker’s appearance before the committee capped a lengthy standoff with Nadler over the chairman’s threat to subpoena the acting attorney general.
Senior ethics officials in the Justice Department suggested to Whitaker in December that he should recuse from oversight of the probe in light of previous public statements he made, including an assertion that Mueller’s probe had “gone too far.”
“Why did you ignore the career officials went to extraordinary lengths to tell you that your continued involvement in the special counsel’s work would undermine the credibility of the Department of Justice?” Nadler asked in his opening statement.
Before Whitaker began his testimony, Nadler and ranking member Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., swapped barbs over the nature of the hearing.
In his opening remarks, Nadler condemned Whitaker for refusing to recuse oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
In an impassioned rebuttal, Collins accused Nadler of attempting “character assassination” and called the hearing “a charade.” Collins then moved to adjourn the hearing before it even began, calling for a roll count vote.
Only hours earlier, it was unclear whether the hearing would even take place, with Whitaker vowing to bail on the session unless Democrats promised not to subpoena him on the same day he would be sitting before Congress for the first time as head of the Justice Department.
Nadler eventually acquiesced, writing Whitaker late Thursday night that he “agreed there is no need to issue a subpoena.”
In prepared remarks released prior to his hearing, Whitaker wrote that he would “not disclose” details of his conversations with the president.
“I want to assure you that I will seek to answer the Committee’s questions today, as best as I can,” Whitaker said in the remarks. “But I also must make clear that I will continue the longstanding Executive Branch policy and practice of not disclosing information that may be subject to executive privilege, such as the contents of deliberations or conversations with the President.”
Nevertheless, Nadler has promised to press Whitaker on a host of concerns that don’t implicate private conversations with Trump.
Friday’s hearing may not be Whitaker’s only congressional hurdle. Just hours before Whitaker’s testimony, Democrats on another House panel said they had obtained new information that suggests Whitaker failed to pay back money to be distributed to customers of World Patent Marketing, the company he was associated with that had been accused of scamming customers.
Whitaker served on the advisory board of the company charged by the Federal Trade Commission with perpetrating “a scam that has bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars.”
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