Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker tells House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler that his "five minutes are up" when asked if President Trump ever requested that Whitaker take action against special counsel Robert Mueller.
Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker: Russia 'trying to interfere in 2020'
By Jim Acosta, CNN
Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker warned Russia is "trying to interfere in 2020" during remarks at the Oxford Union in the UK on Friday, remarks that came after it was revealed that a Capitol Hill briefing on Russia's continued election interference had angered President Donald Trump.
CNN has obtained a recording of Whitaker's remarks. Whitaker, who replaced Attorney General Jeff Sessions, told the audience at Oxford that law enforcement officials at the Justice Department and the FBI were constantly on guard against the Russian threat to US elections.
"I am never going to deny that Russia tried to interfere in 2016," Whitaker said. "They tried to interfere in 2018. And they're trying to interfere in 2020," Whitaker said, adding the Kremlin's efforts go back to the Reagan administration.
"We have to be on guard," Whitaker said. "At the Department of Justice, especially at the FBI, we had a unique view as to how to interrupt their effort. It's a counterespionage, counterintelligence, all of the kind of things that you do when other countries are trying to interfere in your domestic elections."
Read more at: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/21/politi...
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Whitaker: ‘I don’t believe we were tracking’ family separations
By Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands, CNN
During a fiery hearing Friday, acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker conceded that the administration was not tracking prosecutions of parents and legal guardians separated from children after being apprehended at the USMexico border.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington posed the question in a heated exchange with Whitaker.
“Before or after the zero tolerance policy was put into place – and I call it the ‘zero humanity’ policy – did the US attorneys track when they were prosecuting a parent or legal guardian who had been separated from their child? There’s only one answer to this. It’s gone through the courts,” Jayapal said.
“Did we track it?” Whitaker responded.
Jayapal followed up: “Did you track when you were prosecuting a parent or legal guardian who had been separated from a child?”
“I don’t believe we were tracking that,” Whitaker said.
The administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy required that all adults apprehended at the border be subject to criminal prosecution, resulting in families being separated.
Read more at: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/08/politi...