if you could do it all along, why do you have to put it in a memo? >> congressman jordan, first of all, i was -- because of general sessions' recusal from the special counsel's investigation, i was also recused from that investigation, and so i was not -- >> i'm asking. you said you were fully briefed -- >> you're asking me why at the time rod rosenstein -- >> i'm asking you why two and a half months after the broadest order you can have, why did rod rosenstein say, hey, you could do this all along but now i'm putting it in a memo. what really troubles me, mr. whitaker, right after that statement the final orders were within the scope of the allegation and within the scope of the order. right after that, you know what happens? everything is redacted. look at this. the whole darn thing. so if you could do it all along and you have to send a memo to him two and a half months later, and then you redact everything