TPM Reader AF puts together the pieces …
You must be aware of this CNN article but there’s even a more direct connection between Clovis and Whitaker getting this job than what you stated in your last post:
It was Clovis, no stranger to TV and radio himself, who encouraged Whitaker to get a regular commentary gig on cable television to get President Donald Trump’s attention, according to friends who Whitaker told at the time. Whitaker was hired as a CNN legal commentator last year for several months, before leaving the role in September 2017 to head to the Justice Department as chief of staff to now-former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Through his CNN role, where he was deeply critical of the Mueller probe, Whitaker got to know Trump, who saw him on TV and later met in person.
So it looks like he was hired (seemingly at Clovis’ encouragement at least at some level) as a CNN Commentator right around the time Comey was dismissed (May 2017), and within a couple months of Sessions recusing himself (Mar 2017). He floated a way to stop Mueller by reducing the special counsel’s budget in July 2017, wrote about the overreach of the Mueller investigation in August 2017, and was hired as chief of staff to Sessions in September of 2017…
