New AG has conflicts too
Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker owes his improbable ascent to Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign, which led to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment and the president’s lasting fury. But Whitaker’s own apparent conflicts of interest suggest he should also recuse himself.
Of course, this being the Trump administration,
whether he will do so is an entirely different question that isn’t difficult to answer. But if the provisional attorney general does proceed in supervising the Mueller investigation without so much as seeking ethical guidance, it will be in violation of federal regulations.
Executive branch ethical standards require an employee to seek official advice before participating in a matter in which there is “a question regarding his impartiality.” To say there is a question regarding Whitaker’s impartiality about the Mueller probe would be putting it mildly.
Whitaker wrote in a CNN commentary published in August 2017, less than three months into Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia, that the counsel had neared “a red line” and must be reined in. He also mused about crippling the probe by eliminating its funding.
Moreover, Justice Department regulations prohibit employees from participating in a criminal investigation if they have a “personal or political relationship” with a “person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation” or with a “specific and substantial interest that would be directly affected by the outcome.” This is what forced Sessions’ recusal in light of his involvement in the Trump campaign, and it has similar implications for Whitaker.
A former college football player, U.S. attorney, and Senate candidate in Iowa, Whitaker also chaired a state treasurer campaign there for Sam Clovis, whom he has described as a “great” friend. Clovis went on to become a co-chairman of the Trump campaign and a witness in the Mueller investigation. The departmental regulation could also apply to the acting attorney general’s relationships with Trump and Sessions, for whom he served as chief of staff.
Whitaker was hired for that post the month after his Mueller critique appeared. This week, Trump bypassed the regular line of succession at Justice to promote him to the top job. It seems Whitaker’s partiality, far from giving the president pause, is his chief qualification.