As expected, although possibly not quite this soon, Trump fired his own appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday before the midterm vote count had even been completed.
VERY important: Sessions's temporary replacement, Matthew Whitaker, is a GOP partisan who wrote a CNN op-ed last year saying the Mueller investigation was going too far and that Rosenstein should order Mueller to limit it: https://t.co/zZDZUsp20o
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 7, 2018
Trump bypassed deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when he appointed an acting attorney general to replace Jeff Sessions, appointing Justice Department official Matthew Whitaker, instead. A tweet from Scott Dworkin, which includes audio of Whitaker discussing the Clinton investigation into her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state under President Obama clearly explains why.
Given his record of threats to undermine & weaken the Russia investigation, Matthew Whitaker should recuse himself from any involvement in Mueller’s investigation. Congress must take immediate action to protect the rule of law and integrity of the investigation. #FollowTheFacts
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 7, 2018
‘We all know that the Clinton private email server was a violation of law. The only person that can enforce that act is the attorney general, and this administration clearly has no interest, whether it was Holder or whether it’s former U.S. Attorney in New York named Loretta Lynch, you know, either one, has no desire to go after Hillary for these violations of federal law. And you know, so we’re sorta stuck here in a situation where again the law doesn’t for some reason apply. It’s very clear what the law says but it doesn’t apply to Hillary Clinton or anybody on her senior staff that was also using this secret email server.’
NEW: Here is audio we just dug up of Matthew Whitaker talking about a potential indictment of Hillary Clinton for her "illegal" email server. Someone needs to tell him to take off his tinfoil hat. #WhitakerMustRecuse pic.twitter.com/CYSVz5ApyI
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 7, 2018
It is actually very clear what the law said when Clinton was using a private email server. According to a report by the Office of the Inspector General, it says:
‘Laws and regulations did not prohibit employees from using their personal email accounts for the conduct of official Department business.’
Whitaker went on to explain that Clinton had used the server to cover for Sydney Blumenthal, who he believes was acting a foreign agent for the Clinton Foundation. All of these accusations were Trump talking points during the 2016 presidential campaigns.
Normally the President would elevate the Deputy AG to Acting AG until a nominee is confirmed. @realDonaldTrump is specifically bypassing Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and putting supervision of the Mueller probe in the hands of Matthew Whitaker, a person biased against the probe. https://t.co/MlvznDBodJ
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) November 7, 2018
There was no violation of the law in Clinton’s use of a private email server. Multiple investigations turned up no evidence that she had done anything wrong, and former FBI Director James Comey stated under oath that there was no basis for prosecution or further investigation. Even Clinton’s deletion of personal emails before turning the server over for inspection, which she did in consultation with a team of attorneys, followed the law.
In a direct move to undermine the Mueller investigation, @realDonaldTrump forced Jeff Sessions to resign. I am concerned that the Mueller investigation will now be overseen by Acting AG Matthew Whitaker – someone who has raised some troubling views about the investigation.
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) November 7, 2018
Trump has officially appointed a tinfoil hat-wearing sycophant to head up the investigation into himself. The constitutional crisis we have now entered is fully underway.
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