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.