Acting AG overseeing Mueller probe says he hasn’t interfered

WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said on 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. Republicans made clear they viewed the hearing as pointless political grandstanding, especially since Whitaker may have less than a week left as the country’s chief law enforcement officer.

Whitaker, even while expressing exasperation at the questioning by Democrats, nonetheless sought to assuage their concerns by saying he had never discussed with Trump or other White House officials special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. He told lawmakers there had been no change since his arrival in the job in the “overall management” of Mueller’s investigation and that he has been faithful to the Constitution and to the law.

His frustration was evident as he repeatedly insisted that he would not discuss his conversations with the president, deflected questions he did not wish to answer and implored lawmakers to focus on the more conventional work of the Justice Department, not just the Mueller investigation.

In a comment that drew audible gasps and chuckles, Whitaker interrupted questioning from the committee’s Democratic chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, by saying, “Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes are up.” That referred to the time limits for questions — one normally addressed by lawmakers, not witnesses.

Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the committee’s top Republican, called it a “dog and pony show” and criticized Democrats for releasing derogatory information about Whitaker’s business dealings hours before the hearing.

Whitaker refused to answer questions that he believed touched on the specifics of the Mueller investigation. He declined to say if he still agreed with sharply critical comments about the Mueller investigation that he made as a television commentator before arriving at the Justice Department in the fall of 2017 as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.