Trump’s Acting AG Matt Whitaker Twice Lied On Resume, Claiming To Be ‘Academic All-American,’ Reports ‘WSJ’

Donald Trump chose Matthew Whitaker to serve as “acting” United States attorney general in November after firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions due to Sessions’ recusal from the investigation into Trump’s Russia connections, according to the Washington Post. But Whitaker was immediately at the center of controversy on several fronts. On Wednesday, a new scandal hit the 49-year-old acting AG when a published report alleged that Whitaker has twice lied on his resume as he sought career advancement, including once when he applied to be a judge in Iowa.

According to an investigative report published on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, Whitaker claimed on resumes in 2010 and 2014, as well as on the website of a law firm where he was employed, that he was named an “Academic All-American” in 1992, while he was a varsity football player at the University of Iowa.

To be qualified for “Academic All-American” honors, a student-athlete must be a starter or frequently-used reserve player on a vanity team and must maintain a grade-point average of 3.3 — that is, a “B” average — or higher. But when the Journal contacted the College Sports Information Directors of America, the organization could find no record of Whitaker receiving Academic All-American honors.

Nor is Whitaker’s name listed anywhere on the CoSIDA online roster of “all-time” Academic All-Americans.

CoSIDA spokesperson Barb Kowal said that Whitaker appears to have received a lower, less prestigious title of Academic “All-District,” according to the Hill. A Justice Department spokesperson claimed that a 1993 Iowa media guide listing Whitaker as “GTE District VII academic All-American” was Whitaker’s source of his false claim.

In 2009, when Whitaker stepped down as a United States attorney in Iowa, the Justice Department in its own press release described him as “an academic All-American football player,” according to the Journal, and Whitaker included the claim on his resume the following year when he sought an Iowa judge’s post.

The resume controversy is not the first time during his two-month stint as acting attorney general that Whitaker has been accused of falsifying information on official forms. In his first two weeks in his current post, Whitaker edited or altered his legally required financial disclosure forms five times, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Because Whitaker was not confirmed by the Senate as an “acting” cabinet official, he has never been required to face questions or oversight about potential financial conflicts of interest, as CREW noted.