Trump pressed Whitaker
Well this is scandalous. CNN reports:
President Donald Trump has at least twice in the past few weeks vented to his acting attorney general, angered by federal prosecutors who referenced the President’s actions in crimes his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Trump was frustrated, the sources said, that prosecutors Matt Whitaker oversees filed charges that made Trump look bad. None of the sources suggested that the President directed Whitaker to stop the investigation, but rather lashed out at what he felt was an unfair situation.
The first known instance took place when Trump made his displeasure clear to acting attorney general Matt Whitaker after Cohen pleaded guilty November 29 to lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow. Whitaker had only been on the job a few weeks following Trump’s firing of Jeff Sessions.
Three weeks in fact; very few.
Over a week later, Trump again voiced his anger at Whitaker after prosecutors in Manhattan officially implicated the President in a hush-money scheme to buy the silence of women around the 2016 campaign — something Trump fiercely maintains isn’t an illegal campaign contribution. Pointing to articles he said supported his position, Trump pressed Whitaker on why more wasn’t being done to control prosecutors in New York who brought the charges in the first place, suggesting they were going rogue.
Nixon got bounced out of there for doing less than that.
This is shocking. “Trump pressed Whitaker on why more wasn't being done to control prosecutors in New York who brought the charges in the first place, suggesting they were going rogue.” https://t.co/yzKEkOkPfh
— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) December 22, 2018
Trump is discussing a criminal investigation he is a subject of & his kids are targets of with the replacement Attorney General he appointed to oversee it. That’s all kinds of wrong. https://t.co/9slKsf8DQt
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) December 22, 2018
Words fail me. The President is having conversations w/the Acting AG he installed (w/out Senate confirmation) about a criminal case in which he is directly implicated. Compare U.S. Constit., Art. II "he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"https://t.co/Oj593Hl9oa
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) December 22, 2018
When asked for comment,
Susan Collins furrowed her brow, and said, “make sure you write down that I furrowed my brow. You see how furrowed I am?”
Paul Ryan said “President who? Sorry, don’t know him.”
Mitch McConnell shoved a handful of potato chips in his mouth and gave the “can’t talk, my mouth is full” gesture.
Marco Rubio’s programming crashed and he began reciting names of Miami Dolphins linebackers.
Apart from that, have a merry Christmas.
(*As in “Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/21/trump-brexit-climate-change-despair-windrush