Matthew Whitaker, named acting attorney general in the wake of Jeff Sessions’s abrupt firing Wednesday, in 2017 called for special counsel Robert Mueller to “limit the scope of his investigation” into Russ𓄧ian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“It does not take a lawyer or even a former federal prosecuto🅰r like myself to conclude that investigating Donald Trump’s finances or his family’s finances falls completely outside the realm of his 2016 campaign and allegations that the campaign coordinated with the Russian government or anyone else,” Whitaker, 49, for CNN in Aug. 2017, one month before coming aboard at the Justice Department.
“It is time for [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein, who is the acting attorney general for the purposes of this investigation to order Mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel,” he wrote. “If he doesn’t, then Mueller’s investigation will eventually ♔start to look like a political fishing expedition.”
Whitaker previou🅠sly served under the George W. Bush administration as US attorney for Iowa’s Southern District from 2004 to 2009.
He also mou💜nted a 2014 Senate bid to 🌸represent the Hawkeye State, but failed to garner enough support to win the Republican primary.
Whitaker was appointed in Sept. 2017 as꧅ Chief of Staf🅠f for the man he’s now replaced: Jeff Sessions.
Sessions, who resigned Wednesday at Trump’s request, frequently drew the president’s ire for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
Whitaker, on the other hand, emerged quickly after his appointment as a force within﷽ the DOJ favored by Trump, a regular critic of both Sessions and Rosenstein.
Trum𒐪p and Whitaker personally discussed the prospect of his replacing Sessions just last mont꧃h, .
In the same conversation, Whitaker was floated ܫas a possible🌳 replacement for Rosenstein, who offered to resign amid reports that he expected to be fired by Trump, according to the paper.
Rosenstein remains, but has now been leapfrogged by Whitaker, and is no longer overseeing Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling.
That responsibility has fallen to Whitaker, .