ACTING attorney General Matthew Whitaker made under oath at a hearing in the Judicial Committee of the Congress on Friday. In fact, all the questions of the congressmen were linked to the case of Robert Muller about the Russian intervention in election 2016.
Matthew Whitaker»s bizarre congressional testimony contained a Trump Easter egg https://t.co/84GlU9iIkU pic.twitter.com/ExtYQzViuJ
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 8, 2019
Whitaker said under oath that he had not shared information with trump or anyone else in the White house about the investigation of Muller, and did not intervene in this investigation. «There was no event, no decision that would require from me any action and I am in no way intervened in the investigation of special counsel,» said Whitaker.
Whitaker refused to talk about his conversations with the President outside the context of the works of Muller, on the basis of «long-standing practice of the Executive authority not to disclose information that may be subject to Executive privilege.» He also refused to answer any questions about other criminal investigations related to trump, in the case of the former trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
«I’m not going to discuss my personal conversations with the President of the United States,» said Whittaker when a member of the house of representatives vel Demings (FL) asked him if he talked with trump about Cohen. The Prosecutor assured that trump never «crushed» on him because of Cohen, contrary to the existing media reports.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker tells House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler «I see that your 5 minutes is up» when asked if President Trump ever requested that Whitaker take action against special counsel Robert Mueller. https://t.co/tdp4tirBFb pic.twitter.com/rqDXlMbyQt
— tomorraw.com (@tomorrawdotcom) February 9, 2019
Questions rained down not only from Democrats, Republicans interested in the opinion of Whitaker is whether the Mueller investigation of abuse of power in General and in detail and not was it legal guise of the «witch hunt». The Prosecutor stated that he was not familiar with the facts of abuse and does not see the political bias of the investigation. Republicans also looked to see whether Whitaker abuses by the FBI or the Department of justice – for example, in the case of the arrest of Roger stone’s FBI in January. But ACTING attorney General did not Express concern at this situation.
In the end, Whitaker defended his decision not to abandon tracking the investigation into Muller. Although, not for long, as the new Prosecutor General has been appointed and the report Whitaker was more of a farewell. But the possibility of monitoring the work of Muller will be useful for William Barr. The hearing lasted over six hours and many were disappointed. Besides that movie about anything, but even without popcorn.
Jerry Nadler Matthew Whitaker asks if he has ever been asked to approve any request or action to be taken by the Special Counsel.
Whitaker: «Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up.»
The response in the room is remarkable. Via CSPAN2 pic.twitter.com/UAcOyulX46
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 8, 2019
«Maybe we could set up a popcorn machine in the back, because that’s what be the hearing — they become the show,» said a member of the Board of the judicial Committee of Doug Collins.
Republicans outraged that six hours was spent on the topic of Mueller, as if there are no other questions to the Prosecutor General on violence with weapons, epidemics opioids, crimes on the southern border.
Hearings Whitaker — the first of many, which will be attended by senior officials of the trump, and it is clear that disunity and politically charged questions will accompany all hearing.
After three attempts, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) gets acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to acknowledge that Trump’s State of the Union claims about crime falling in El Paso because of a border wall were not based on any FBI data or facts. pic.twitter.com/gmYYeKLDuc
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 8, 2019
Trump’s decision to appoint Whitaker to the acting attorney General at the time caused a lot of controversy, given past public criticism of Whitaker and the President’s decision fully to go beyond the case-law of the Ministry of justice and appoint a person, not confirmed by the Senate, the highest law enforcement position in the country.
