MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow yesterday gave a very compelling case as to why Matt Whitaker, Trump’s appointee to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions creates such an appearance of impropriety that Whitaker’s only option is recusal from Mueller probe.
It is well known that even though Special Counsel Robert Mueller was given great latitude to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections, his investigation has boiled down to two major questions–whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and whether Trump, in an effort to hide his ties to Russia has used his position as President to obstruct justice.
Well it turns out, according to Maddow that Matt Whitaker, Trump’s appointee to replace Jeff Sessions and the new custodian of the Mueller probe has already made public his position on the two key TrumpRussia questions making him unfit to oversee Mueller probe.
Whitaker reportedly said on a radio show on June 21, 2017;
“The truth is there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign.“ Regarding obstruction of justice, Whitaker said this on Sean Hannity show, one of Trump’s favorite shows on Fox News;
“This idea that there was some collusion with Russian nationals and even Putin to interfere…with the election I think is just ludicrous based on what we know at this point.”
The full Maddow segment is available here but the relevant clip is below
Bottom line, as Maddow correctly observed, if Whitaker has already stated publicly his conclusions about the two key questions being investigated by Mueller–collusion and obstruction–he cannot credibly oversee the Mueller probe and must recuse himself.
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