Whitaker Refuses to Recuse from Russia Probe, Despite Advice from Ethics Officials – By Alan Neuhauser (usnews.com) / Dec 20 2018
A senior attorney at the Justice Department had advised acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to recuse himself from leading the investigation in light of his comments criticizing the inquiries.
Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will not recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigations, reportedly bucking advice from a senior ethics lawyer at the Justice Department that he do so.
Whitaker had asked for advice from Justice Department ethics officials because of previous comments he had made that were critical of the special counsel probes.
Senior ethics lawyers reportedly told reporters that, though the decision was a “close call,” they recommended to Whitaker that he recuse himself “in an abundance of caution.” Whitaker, however, deferred to his own team advisers, who recommended he not step aside.
The department’s No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, will continue supervising the Mueller investigation on a “day-to-day basis,” Justice Department officials reportedly said. With the decision, however, Whitaker will retain ultimate oversight of the probe.
Whitaker’s time in the position appears limited. Trump has appointed former Attorney General Bill Barr to serve in a permanent capacity, replacing Whitaker upon confirmation by the Senate. Barr might face his own recusal question, with the Wall Street Journal reporting Wednesday that he had sent an unsolicited memo to the Justice Department criticizing the Russia investigations.
Nonetheless, the decision – along with Barr’s selection for attorney general – may come to mark a pivotal moment in the Justice Department’s wide-ranging investigations into the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, has been openly critical of Mueller’s work. He wrote in an op-ed for CNN last year that “Mueller’s investigation of Trump is going too far” and suggested in an interview with the network that officials could make the Mueller investigation’s budget “so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.”
Whitaker has also been implicated in questionable conduct unrelated to his comments about the Russia investigation, including an advisory role at a Miami patent company that came under federal investigation and was ordered to repay the government $26 million.
Trump last month selected Whitaker over Rosenstein after forcing then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign. Sessions, once one of the president’s earliest supporters on the campaign trail, attracted Trump’s ire when he recused himself from the Russia investigation amid news reports that Sessions had himself had undisclosed meetings with Russian representatives.
Whitaker’s selection to temporarily lead the Justice Department sparked an outcry – one that’s sure to be reignited by his decision not to recuse.
Critics of Whitaker’s selection have contended that Rosenstein – a longtime Justice Department lawyer who was previously appointed U.S. attorney by both Democratic and Republican presidents – had to go through Senate confirmation for the role of deputy attorney general. Whitaker, by contrast, did not require such confirmation to serve as the attorney general’s chief of staff.
