What made Whitaker stop covering?
by digby
Matt Whitaker unexpectedly left the Justice Department a couple of weeks ago. Nobody knows why. He’d been promised a nice sinecure for his services.
Today, this happened:
Nadler said that Whitaker was “directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more U.S. attorneys.”
The committee chairman also said that Whittaker “was involved in conversation about the scope of the recusal” of Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, from the Michael Cohen investigation, as well as whether the prosecutors there went “too far in pursuing the campaign finance case” that implicated the President.
Nadler also claimed that Whitaker “did not deny” that Trump called Whitaker to discuss Cohen’s case and personnel decisions surrounding it, as had been reported by the New York Times. At a public hearing last month, Whitaker denied a report by CNN that Trump “lashed out” at him about the Cohen investigation in New York.
Nadler, on Wednesday, did not elaborate on what exactly Whitaker said behind closed doors about the phone call.
“He would not say no,” is all Nadler would say.
Nadler claims Whitaker was involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more U.S. attorneys pic.twitter.com/M7T64mAhTo— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 13, 2019
Whitaker seems to have decided to be a little less obstructive for some reason.Perhaps, like others before him, he’s seeing the downside to being a Trump toadie. Having this president say something nice about you at a photo op isn’t really helpful when the law is breathing down your neck.
And they should all see Michael Cohen as a cautionary tale. He worked for Trump for a decade, very closely. He was involved with the family. Look where he is now.
Everywhere he goes, Trump leaves a path of destruction in his wake.
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