Democrats Demand Acting Attorney General’s Recusal From Russia Investigation

Top Democrats allege a conflict of interest and vow to investigate Matthew Whitaker’s appointment.

Matthew Whitaker in Washington, DC.Douglas Graham/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Top Democrats demanded Sunday that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker step aside from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, arguing that he has demonstrated a “clear bias” against the probe.

“There are serious ethical considerations that require Mr. Whitakerā€™s immediate recusal from any involvement with the Special Counsel investigation of the Russian governmentā€™s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” six senior congressional Democrats wrote in a letter Sunday to Lee Lofthus, the assistant attorney general for administration and the Justice Department’s top ethics official.

The six Democrats say that a “history of hostile statements” toward Mueller’s investigation and ties to a figure embroiled in the Trump-Russia scandal hinder Whitaker’s “ability to supervise the investigation independently and impartially.” They argue that Whitaker’s relationship with Sam Clovis, who served as national co-chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign, creates a conflict of interest, because Clovis was involved in contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. Whitaker worked on Clovis’ 2014 campaign to be Iowa State Treasurer and reportedly maintains ties to Clovis. During the campaign, Clovis oversaw George Papadopoulous, a foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty to obstructing justice by lying to FBI agents about his contacts with suspected Russian agents. Clovis encouraged Papadopolous’ efforts to broker a meeting with Russians and has appeared before a grand jury convened by Mueller. 

Before joining Sessions’ staff, Whitaker, a former US attorney in Iowa, routinely attacked the Mueller probe in media appearances. Whitaker has echoed Trump’s words by saying that Mueller’s investigation risked becoming “a mere witch hunt,” argued that there is no evidence Trump that obstructed justice, and asserted that Trump could legally instruct prosecutors to cease investigating any individual suspect. In August 2017, Whitaker authored an article titled “Mueller’s Investigation of Trump Is Going Too Far,” in which he urged restricting the scope of the investigation. On July 26, 2017, Whitaker said he “could see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn’t fire Bob Mueller but he just reduces his budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.”

Whitaker has also claimed that there is no evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. The Democratic members of Congress who wrote the letter note that Whitaker said in March 2017 that the left “is trying to sow this theory that essentially Russians interfered with the US election. Which has been proven false.” That statement “demonstrates plainly that Mr. Whitaker has pre-judged the outcome of the Special Counsel investigation,” the Democrats wrote.

“Mr. Whitaker’s statements indicate a clear bias against the investigation that would cause a reasonable person to question his impartiality,” the letter states. 

Whitaker reportedly has said that he used televised attacks on the Mueller probe to get Trump’s attention. He interviewed for a job on Trump’s legal team before joining Sessions’ staff.  

Democrats vowed Sunday to investigate the circumstances of Whitaker’s promotion to acting attorney general. Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who co-signed the letter and will take over the House Judiciary Committee chairmanship in January, said on ABC’s This Week that Whitaker will be the “very first witness” he calls before the committee. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), another letter signer who will lead the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that Democrats plan to find out if Whitaker promised Trump that he would take steps to hamper Mueller.

ā€œIf he has any involvement whatsoever in this Russia probe, 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 heā€™s doing anything to interfere with the probe,ā€ Schiff said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Mr. Whitaker needs to understand that he will be called to answer and any role that he plays will be exposed to the public.”

In addition to Nadler and Schiff, the letter was signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif), and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Pelosi expects to become speaker of the House in January, and Cummings will take over the House Oversight Committee.

Read Democrats’ letter:



WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate