Top law officer says he hasn’t meddled in Mueller probe.
WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker testified Friday that he has “not interfered in any way” in the special counsel’s Russia investigation as he faced a contentious and partisan congressional hearing in his waning days on the job.
The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was the first, and likely only, chance for newly empowered Democrats in the majority to grill an attorney general they perceive as a Donald Trump loyalist and whose appointment they suspect was aimed at suppressing investigations of the Republican president. They confronted Whitaker on his past criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller’s work and his refusal to recuse himself from overseeing it, attacked him over his prior business dealings and sneeringly challenged his credentials as the country’s chief law enforcement officer.
“We’re all trying to figure out: Who are you, where did you come from and how the heck did you become the head of the Department of Justice,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. When Whitaker tried to respond, the New York Democrat interrupted, “Mr. Whitaker, that was a statement, not a question. I assume you know the difference.”
Yet Democrats yielded no new information about the status of the Mueller probe as Whitaker repeatedly refused to discuss conversations with the president or answer questions that he thought might reveal details. Though clearly exasperated — he drew gasps when he told the committee chairman that his five-minute time limit for questions was up — Whitaker nonetheless sought to assuage Democratic concerns by insisting he had never discussed the Mueller probe with Trump or other White House officials, and that there’d been no change in its “overall management.”
“We have followed the special counsel’s regulations to a T,” Whitaker said. “There has been no event, no decision, that has required me to take any action, and I have not interfered in any way with the special counsel’s investigation.”
Republicans made clear they viewed the hearing as pointless political grandstanding, especially since Whitaker may have less than a week left in the job, and some respected his wishes by asking questions about topics other than Mueller’s probe into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Senate is expected to vote as soon as next week on confirming William Barr, Trump’s pick for attorney general.
“I’m thinking about maybe we just set up a popcorn machine in the back because that’s what this is becoming,” said Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia. “It’s becoming a show.”
Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney from Iowa, took over when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced from the Cabinet last November.