Adam Schiff: ‘We Are Going To Scrutinize Every Single Action By Matt Whitaker’
Incoming House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff vowed Sunday that “every single action by Matt Whitaker” will be scrutinized, the Hill reports.
Schiff came on CNN‘s State of the Union to discuss rumors pertaining to President Donald Trump’s relationship with his Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Trump allegedly “lashed out” at Whitaker for letting prosecutors file charges that make him “look bad.”
The president was angry about federal prosecutors referencing him in the case against his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for four crimes, two of which relate to hush money payments, allegedly made on behalf and at the direction of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
According to media sources briefed on the matter, Trump’s frustration with the prosecutors has prompted him to pressure the acting attorney general on numerous occasions. Although the president has reportedly asked Whitaker to “control” the prosecutors better, he did not direct him to terminate the investigation.
But according to Adam Schiff, the fact that Trump is allegedly pressuring his acting attorney general is problematic in and of itself. The Incoming House Intelligence Committee Chairman said that it was “wrong on every level” for the president to interfere, arguing that the fact that he may have done so will “taint anything his acting attorney general does.”
“This is a real assault on the rule of law and we’re going to scrutinize every single action by Matt Whitaker so the public knows just what he does.”
According to Schiff, Whitaker has already been warned. Ethics lawyers warned Trump’s acting attorney general that he should not in any way participate in the investigation and that the public “wouldn’t have confidence in his judgments and now we learn they’re discussing the case.”
While it remains unclear whether or not Whitaker complied with the request, the acting attorney general has been described as a Trump loyalist in the past, willing to do what it takes to serve the president and his agenda.
Schiff: Dems will subpoena Mueller report if Trump tries to hide it https://t.co/paHFaqHpeL pic.twitter.com/qd89MXZu9W
— The Hill (@thehill) December 24, 2018
Whitaker has refused to recuse himself from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference and possible collusion with the Trump Campaign, according to the Guardian. This perhaps comes as no surprise, given that he has criticized Mueller and his investigation on a number of occasions.
Whitaker called for the probe to be terminated, writing in an op-ed penned for CNN that Robert Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump is going “too far,” urging Rod Rosenstein to limit the scope of the Russia probe.
