Democrats demand Whitaker step back from Mueller probe
New House majority vows to prevent any interference from acting attorney-general
Top Democrats on Sunday called for the acting US attorney-general to recuse himself from the Mueller inquiry as the new House majority geared up for a fight over the future of the Russia probe.
Nancy Pelosi, the veteran Democratic leader who is expected to become speaker of the House following her party’s victory in the midterm elections, said she had no confidence in Matthew Whitaker, the president’s pick as temporary replacement for Jeff Sessions, who he sacked last week.
“He should never have been appointed and . . . it does violence to the constitution and the vision of our founders to appoint such a person in such a manner to be the chief legal officer in our country, and that’s bipartisan,” she told CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday.
The Mueller inquiry, which Mr Trump has repeatedly cast as a political “witch hunt”, has cast a pall over his presidency. Mr Whitaker has appeared to echo his concerns, arguing in August last year that the attorney-general’s office should ensure that former FBI chief Robert Mueller “limit the scope of his investigation” into whether Mr Trump’s campaign colluded with Russians to secure his election.
“If he doesn’t, Mueller's investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition,” he argued in a CNN op-ed the month before he was appointed as chief of staff to the attorney-general. Mr Sessions recused himself from overseeing the investigation and resigned at Mr Trump’s request last week.
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, said his party would attempt to bring legislation to stop Mr Whitaker from interfering in the investigation if he does not recuse himself.
“He’s already prejudged the Mueller situation. If he stays there, he will create a constitutional crisis by inhibiting Mueller or firing Mueller,” Mr Schumer told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, adding leading Democrats had written to the chief ethics officer of the justice department asking him to issue guidelines about recusal.
Jerrold Nadler, who is likely to become chairman of the House judiciary committee in January, said he planned to call Mr Whitaker as his first witness to testify on his “expressed hostility” to the Mueller inquiry.
Mr Nadler told CNN’s State of the Union that Mr Whitaker’s stance represented “a real threat to the integrity of that investigation” and described him as “a complete political lackey”.
Mr Whitaker’s role has not been confirmed by the Senate. Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who is close to Mr Trump, argued there was no need for Mr Whitaker to recuse himself. He told CBS that a permanent attorney-general was not expected to be selected until next year, potentially giving Mr Whitaker a strong hand over its direction in the meantime.
Mr Mueller has spent 18 months looking into links between Russian electoral interference and Mr Trump’s campaign. He is also mandated to look into “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation”, a broad stipulation that has worried some in the White House that Mr Trump’s personal and business dealings would come under scrutiny.
Mr Trump has not released his tax records, and a Democrat-controlled House ways and means committee could potentially request them.
Ms Pelosi, who said the public had a right to know what had happened, stressed her party intends to pursue surgical strikes rather than blanket attacks. Insiders said that was aimed at maintaining popularity in the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections.
“We are not scattershot, we are not doing any investigation for a political purpose but to seek the truth,” she said.
Adam Schiff, who is expected to become the new Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, said while investigations were “sexy” and “interesting”, less dramatic legislative procedures were more important for improving the lives of Americans, citing healthcare as a priority.
“Our strongest purpose here is to put forward a positive agenda. And we don't want that lost in a flurry [of] investigation,” he told NBC News’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd on Sunday.
Elijah Cummings, a Democratic member on the House oversight committee, said: “I’m not going to be handing out subpoenas like somebody’s handing out candy on Halloween.” Instead, he wanted to focus on healthcare, drug prices and the census, which underpins citizenship and voting.
John Lawrence, who served as Ms Pelosi’s chief of staff when she was last House Speaker, said Ms Pelosi and other members of her staff would exert “discipline” over the types of investigations that Democrats would lead.
Democrats plan to investigate Mr Trump’s alleged interventions, such as efforts to block the merger of CNN’s parent company Time Warner with AT&T, and whether the Trump administration pushed the US Post Office to increase shipping rates paid by Amazon.com in order to hurt its chief executive Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, among the publications Mr Trump derides as “fake news”.
Mr Lawrence said Democrats would also probably investigate the Trump administration for concrete policy actions, such as changing the standards for coal plant emissions or weakening healthcare.
But the Democrats will also face internal challenges, including the arrival of young progressives who have vowed to impeach Mr Trump, alongside more traditional moderates who think such a move unwise.
Ms Pelosi is used to a fight. After the Democrats' rout in 2016, she faced a challenge for her leadership position and handily defeated her opponent — Tim Ryan, a progressive of Ohio — by a vote of 163-34.
Mr Ryan is not expected to stand against her this time round, however, and last week cautioned new members of the Democratic caucus not to disrupt party unity ahead of 2020.