Whitaker won’t testify until threat removed

WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told lawmakers Thursday that he would not testify before the House Judiciary Committee as scheduled Friday without a written assurance that they would not issue a subpoena for his testimony during the hearing.

The jostling called into doubt whether Whitaker — installed by President Donald Trump in November after he ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions the day after the midterm elections — will appear as planned before the committee. Some Democrats consider Whitaker’s appointment to be illegitimate.

The latest turn in the political drama started Thursday morning, when the committee voted to give its chair, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the authority to subpoena Whitaker if he did not answer questions during the hearing or if he chose not to show up.

Democrats want to ask Whitaker about matters related to the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller and whether Trump replaced Sessions with Whitaker in order to interfere with that inquiry.

While Whitaker had agreed to testify voluntarily, the potential that Nadler could subpoena him in the middle of the hearing was essentially a threat to initiate contempt-of-Congress proceedings if Whitaker refused to answer questions without a legal right to balk.

But on Thursday afternoon, the Justice Department sent Nadler a letter demanding that he not use that power.