This post has been updated.
It may wind up being the most consequential legal question in Robert S. Mueller III’s entire Russia investigation, and it has nothing to do with Mueller.
President Trump’s acting attorney general, Matthew G. Whitaker, is facing a legal fight to keep his job. After several legal experts raised constitutional objections to it, the state of Maryland has sought an injunction to declare Whitaker’s appointment illegal and to recognize Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein as the rightful acting attorney general. The Justice Department has now responded.
Whitaker’s commentary on the Mueller probe is clearly sympathetic to Trump — to the extent of musing about defunding Mueller and even suggesting the Trump Tower meeting was business-as-usual. If he continues as acting attorney general, he could rule on consequential issues including potential indictments of Trump allies, up to and including the president’s son. He could reject an attempt to subpoena the president.
View the complete November 14 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.