Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker — who took over after President Trump forced Jeff Sessions to resign just hours after the midterms — has told associates in private that he will not slash funding to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, Bloomberg reported.
According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg, Whitaker plans to allow the investigation to continue, despite his comments last summer when he told CNN if Sessions were ousted, an acting director could reduce Mueller’s budget “so low that his investigations grind to a halt” rather than firing the special counsel.
Whitaker, who served as Sessions chief of staff, has been openly critical of the Russia probe for some time, but he has no intentions of recusing himself from overseeing the probe.
Instead, he’ll just change the locks on the door, and cut off the internet…
Whitaker better not get any info on this either. He was the ‘eyes and ears’ in the DOJ, now he runs the place?
Did he say anything about not slashing Mueller?
He will demand and get from Mueller all the inside information gained in the investigation. He will get Mueller’s case. He will give it to Trump’s lawyers. That doesn’t mean they’ll be able to knock down the case, but they can futz with it and work to make things hard for Mueller.
I thought the law prevented him from doing anything to Mueller’s budget for several months yet.