Acting AG agrees to testify before House

WASHINGTON — After a heated exchange with House Democrats, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told lawmakers late Thursday that he will testify before the House Judiciary Committee as scheduled Friday, even without the assurances he wanted that they would not issue a subpoena for his testimony.

Earlier in the day, the Justice Department sent the committee a letter demanding that any subpoena not be used during the hearing, a promise that the committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., would not give.

But in a letter to the Justice Department, he said as long as Whitaker was prepared to respond to questions, “I assure you that there will be no need for the Committee to issue a subpoena.”

Nadler also said that the committee was willing to work with Whitaker on a case-by-case basis on any question he felt he could not respond to during the hearing.

Early in the evening, the Justice Department told the committee that Whitaker would be at the hearing Friday, according to Nadler.

The latest turn in the political drama started Thursday morning, when the committee voted to give its chairman, Nadler, 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 if President Donald Trump replaced Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Whitaker to interfere with that inquiry.

“I hope not to have to use the subpoena,” Nadler said. “Unfortunately, a series of troubling events over the last few months suggest that we should be prepared.”