Trump pick Whitaker rose through ranks as partisan targeting Democrats
From The Guardian:
Matthew Whitaker, the newly installed acting attorney general, built his career filing politically targeted lawsuits and complaints against Democratic lawmakers. In one case he prosecuted, a paid informant was instructed to wear a wire to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting attended by a Democratic state senator.
An examination of Whitaker’s record, and interviews with people who knew him in the early years of his career in Iowa, describe a lawyer who rose from obscurity to the top ranks of the Department of Justice (DoJ), where he is now the top law enforcement official in the country, because he was seen as a skilled partisan operator. Whitaker also received a critical helping hand over the years from a powerful patron: Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa.
Whitaker’s relationship with Grassley, 85, who is chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and has direct oversight of the DoJ, raises significant questions about whether Grassley might seek to shield Whitaker despite concerns about his controversial – many say illegal – appointment by Donald Trump. It raises questions, for example, about whether Grassley would ever call a hearing in his oversight role in which Whitaker would have to testify under oath, opening him up to questions from Democrats.
Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/12/donald-trump-matt-whitaker-chuck-grassley-republicans
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