Surprise surprise surprise, Whitaker has no intention of recusing himself. Well no shit; that’s why he got the job, so obviously he’s not going to do the thing he was promoted to not do. Normally the job should have gone to Rosenstein, and Whitaker wouldn’t have been in the line at all, but Don wants a loyal stooge and Whitaker is his boy.

Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has no intention of recusing himself from overseeing the special counsel probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people close to him who added they do not believe he would approve any subpoena of President Trump as part of that investigation.

Also according to everything we know about Trump.

Ethics officials at the Justice Department are likely to review his past work to see if he has any financial or personal conflicts. In many instances, that office does not require a Justice Department official to recuse, but suggests a course of action. In the past, senior Justice Department officials tend to follow such advice, but they are rarely required to do so, according to officials familiar with the process.

Yeah that’s great – it’s so typical of the mush surrounding all this. “Oh there are norms and rules and blah blah blah but nobody can actually enforce them so it turns out when we get an actual criminal as president there’s nothing we can do.”  Ethics officials at the Justice Department are likely to review his past work to see if he has any financial or personal conflicts and then throw up their hands because he has them up to here but he’ll do Trump’s bidding.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. Officials there have said Whitaker will follow the regular procedure in handling any ethics issues that arise.

Then they rolled around on the floor laughing.

The two people close to Whitaker also said they strongly believe he would not approve any request from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to subpoena the president.

Translation: the fix is in.

We know.

Whitaker was virtually unknown to Sessions before becoming his chief of staff. A person familiar with the matter said he got on the White House’s radar via conservative circles in Iowa, his TV appearances and his connections with the Federalist Society and other conservative groups. When Sessions’s previous chief of staff, Jody Hunt, was departing, Sessions brought Whitaker in for an interview and came to like him, the person said. Another person said that remained true ever after Whitaker took his place.

Whitaker was a hard-charging top aide to Sessions, imposing on the Justice Department his personal philosophy of starting with the end in mind. His style rubbed many the wrong way, and at times Justice Department officials pushed back on his demands. Justice Department officials said his taking over for his boss was, at the very least, “awkward,” because chiefs of staff typically leave with the attorney general.

In other words he’s basically Steve Bannon with a law degree. Awesome.