Democrats in Congress vow to hem Whitaker in

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats warned President Donald Trump’s newly appointed acting attorney general on Sunday that he will face legal consequences if he attempts to curtail special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging Russia investigation.

Matthew Whitaker, hastily installed when Trump ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week, has given no sign of bowing to demands that he recuse himself from overseeing the probe, despite what Democrats say is clear bias.

Whitaker had repeatedly disparaged the Mueller investigation on TV and in print before Sessions named him his chief of staff last year. In one commentary, Whitaker suggested that the probe could be strangled by curtailing funding for it — a power he now has.

Senate and House Democratic leaders sent a letter Sunday to the Justice Department’s ethics office asking it to review Whitaker’s past statements and issue a formal recommendation on whether he should recuse himself.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is expected to lead the House Intelligence Committee in January, said that if Whitaker does not step aside from supervising the investigation, lawmakers will scrutinize his role and hold him accountable.

“We are going to find out whether he made commitments to the president about the probe, whether he is serving as a back channel to the president or his lawyers about the probe, whether he’s doing anything to interfere with the probe,” Schiff said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Whitaker, he said, “needs to understand that he will be called to answer.”

Similar warnings came from Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the expected head of the House Judiciary Committee. He said Whitaker would be “our very first witness” in January, summoned by subpoena if necessary.

“The questions we will ask him will be about his expressed hostility to the investigation,” Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“How he can possibly supervise it when he’s expressed — when he’s come out and said that the investigation is invalid?”

Nadler described Whitaker, an apparent Trump loyalist, as a “complete political lackey.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on “State of the Union” that he will try to tie a measure protecting Mueller to a must-pass spending bill if Whitaker does not recuse himself.