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Whitaker Said the President Can Kill Any Investigation He Wants
Listen: Trump’s Acting Attorney General Said the President Can Kill Any Investigation He Wants
And Matt Whitaker claimed Trump cannot commit obstruction of justice.
DAVID CORN NOVEMBER 8, 2018 5:01 PM
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/acting-attorney-general-matt-whittaker-said-the-president-can-kill-any-investigation-he-wants/
With President Donald Trump continuing to rail against the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, he has appointed an acting attorney general who has previously declared that a president has the absolute right to kill any investigation he wishes to end.
On Wednesday, Trump announced the forced resignation—that is, the firing—of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Trump had long derided in public for having recused himself from the Russia investigation Trump has repeatedly called a “witch hunt.” Trump’s beef has seemed to be that Sessions on his own accord limited his ability to stifle or end this inquiry and could not protect Trump. But Sessions’ successor, Matt Whitaker, who had been Sessions’ chief of staff at the Justice Department, has not recused himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation and, perhaps more important, has expressed the view that Trump can do whatever he wants to thwart the investigation—and be immune to any charges of obstruction of justice.
Before joining the Justice Department, Whitaker, a former US attorney, was the head of a conservative nonprofit called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, and in this role, he often appeared on right-wing radio shows to discuss the Trump-Russia scandal. On June 9, 2017, Whitaker was asked on the David Webb Show about a congressional hearing the previous day, during which James Comey, whom Trump had recently fired as FBI director, had said that Trump had asked him to drop the bureau’s investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Some legal experts and members of Congress had suggested that Comey’s account suggested Trump had engaged in obstruction of justice. Whitaker disagreed. He contended, “There is no case for obstruction of justice because the president has all the power of the executive and delegates that to people like the FBI director and the attorney general…The president could and has in our nation’s history said stop investigating this person or please investigate this other person.” Whitaker belittled talk about obstruction of justice in this case as “hyperventilation.”
In another radio interview on the day of the Comey testimony, Whittaker dissed the Mueller investigation, remarking, “There’s really nothing here.” And he explicitly said Trump had the right to shut it down or control its direction: “This is power that is completely vested in the president…If he wanted to he could have told Jim [Comey] to stop investigating former [Defense Intelligence Agency] director Flynn. And he didn’t…I’m sure he made his preference known. Quite frankly, he’s president of the United States. He can do that.” Whitaker conceded that it might be fair to characterize such a presidential demand as “inappropriate,” but he insisted it would well be within Trump’s prerogatives.
And Matt Whitaker claimed Trump cannot commit obstruction of justice.
DAVID CORN NOVEMBER 8, 2018 5:01 PM
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/acting-attorney-general-matt-whittaker-said-the-president-can-kill-any-investigation-he-wants/
With President Donald Trump continuing to rail against the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, he has appointed an acting attorney general who has previously declared that a president has the absolute right to kill any investigation he wishes to end.
On Wednesday, Trump announced the forced resignation—that is, the firing—of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Trump had long derided in public for having recused himself from the Russia investigation Trump has repeatedly called a “witch hunt.” Trump’s beef has seemed to be that Sessions on his own accord limited his ability to stifle or end this inquiry and could not protect Trump. But Sessions’ successor, Matt Whitaker, who had been Sessions’ chief of staff at the Justice Department, has not recused himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation and, perhaps more important, has expressed the view that Trump can do whatever he wants to thwart the investigation—and be immune to any charges of obstruction of justice.
Before joining the Justice Department, Whitaker, a former US attorney, was the head of a conservative nonprofit called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, and in this role, he often appeared on right-wing radio shows to discuss the Trump-Russia scandal. On June 9, 2017, Whitaker was asked on the David Webb Show about a congressional hearing the previous day, during which James Comey, whom Trump had recently fired as FBI director, had said that Trump had asked him to drop the bureau’s investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Some legal experts and members of Congress had suggested that Comey’s account suggested Trump had engaged in obstruction of justice. Whitaker disagreed. He contended, “There is no case for obstruction of justice because the president has all the power of the executive and delegates that to people like the FBI director and the attorney general…The president could and has in our nation’s history said stop investigating this person or please investigate this other person.” Whitaker belittled talk about obstruction of justice in this case as “hyperventilation.”
In another radio interview on the day of the Comey testimony, Whittaker dissed the Mueller investigation, remarking, “There’s really nothing here.” And he explicitly said Trump had the right to shut it down or control its direction: “This is power that is completely vested in the president…If he wanted to he could have told Jim [Comey] to stop investigating former [Defense Intelligence Agency] director Flynn. And he didn’t…I’m sure he made his preference known. Quite frankly, he’s president of the United States. He can do that.” Whitaker conceded that it might be fair to characterize such a presidential demand as “inappropriate,” but he insisted it would well be within Trump’s prerogatives.
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