Acting AG Matt Whitaker will consult with ethics officials over recusal

SHARE Acting AG Matt Whitaker will consult with ethics officials over recusal
matt_whitaker_acting_ag_e1542075694772.jpg

Acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker, center, and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, second from right, attend a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Nov. 11, 2018, in Arlington, Va. | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

NEW YORK — Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will consult with Justice Department ethics officials about “matters that may warrant recusal” amid pressure from Democrats to step aside from overseeing the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Whitaker is “fully committed to following all appropriate processes and procedures,” including consulting with senior ethics officials about his “oversight responsibilities and matter that may warrant recusal,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement Monday.

Since his appointment last week, Whitaker has faced mounting pressure to step aside from overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, due to critical comments Whitaker made about the investigation before joining the Justice Department last year.

In an interview with CNN in July 2017, Whitaker suggested the Mueller probe could be starved of its resources by cutting the budget “so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.”

He also penned an op-ed last year that said Mueller would be straying outside his mandate if he investigated Trump family finances. In an interview with a talk-radio host, Whitaker maintained there was no evidence of collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

Whitaker, a Republican Party loyalist and chief of staff to just-ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was elevated last week after Trump forced Sessions out. Mueller’s investigation had been overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein until Sessions’ ouster.

The Senate’s top Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer, called for Whitaker to step aside from overseeing Mueller’s investigation and said Democrats would seek to tie a measure protecting Mueller to must-pass legislation if Whitaker did not recuse himself.

Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats sent a letter Sunday to Lee Lofthus, an assistant attorney general and the department’s chief ethics officer, asking whether he had advised Whitaker to recuse himself.

The Latest
Unite Here Local 1, representing the workers at the Signature Room and its lounge, said in a lawsuit in October the employer failed to give 60 days notice of a closing or mass layoff, violating state law.
Uecker has been synonymous with Milwaukee baseball for over half a century.
Doctors say looking at the April 8 eclipse without approved solar glasses — which are many times darker than sunglasses — can lead to retinal burns and can result in blind spots and permanent vision loss.
Antoine Perteet, 33, targeted victims on the dating app Grindr, according to Chicago police.
Glass-facade buildings can disorient birds in flight. The city is expected to update and revise rules for new developments and rehabbed buildings next month. But bird groups say the proposed guidelines need to be mandatory.