why did he send a letter concerning the scope of the counsel investigation? congressman, thank you for the pete i know this is of a great interest to you. i hope we can have a discussion about this today. the special counsel regulations require a scoping of the special counsel s investigation that identifies the subject and the targets of the investigation. so i am certain that it would have identified the scope of the investigation pursuant to the special counsel s my question is i will get to that my question is why close to market was two and a half months after the special counsel was formed. let s go back to the beginning document, which you told the chairman earlier that you were completely briefed on the special counsel in this occasion. it s a one page document. order number 13 2017 says this, mr. whitaker. the special counsel is
who else customer county people were in those briefings with you when you were briefed about the mueller investigation? come spent, not going to go into the specifics of the briefing. but it was a very limited group. there is only one member of my staff who was present with me. have you ever attempted to use any intermediaries to get information to the president or others on his staff? no, i have not attempted to use anti-intermediaries to get information to the president or his staff. i will close by saying this was going to be a long hearing i will go on for a while. the concern that we have, mr. whitaker, is that there was no senate confirmation here. we are not the senate. but the administration justified their decision in picking you under the vacancies reform act. there was a law on the books for the attorney general s succession. the authority to oversee the special counsel about stress work, it goes from one senate confirmed official to another. from the ag, deputy
it. you know what our under these reductions come mr. whitaker? i do, sir. you do. are there names under the reductions come mr. whitaker? in my experience with investigation, generally would not have a public document identify targets or subject matter of an investigation. especially if somebody is not ultimately charge. let me from it this way. did rod rosenstein give the special counsel the authority to investigate specific americans? congressman, mr. rosenstein acting as the attorney general because of mr. sessions recusal give authorization and jurisdiction to the special counsel. so, yes, under the special counsel regulations, that is the whole purpose of the special counsel. you said yes, so there are specific names, two and half months into the investigation, that rod rosenstein give the special counsel specific american names to go investigat
very explicitly the process that we went through. ultimately, the decision whether or not to recuse was my decision. mr. whitaker, you are asked a direct question. mr. whitaker, your a direct question. it s getting a little tiresome here and use tall and weighs the number of prosperous time. the member only has 5 minutes. he asked you a specific question. did you last receive advice on that on december 18th? the answer ought to be yes or no or some other date. or i don t remember. we don t need a speech. the gentleman may repeat the question. because mr. chairman, if we are going to counsel the witness and on how we should answer, are you answering questions or as a witness question work i m asking the witness not to stall. we have under that many times here when he started to ask the question in the way that he is asked. point of order. to speak of gentleman is out of order. mr. johnson has a floor. i would like to time will be restored. thank you, sir. sir, isn t it
welcome mr. whitaker, we already know that there has been some modification of the broadet order i think you can have with this august 2nd, 2017 memo. all i m asking is, are there any other modifications? any other changes to the parameters of investigation into the president of the united states customer can speak of the time of the gentleman has expired. but witness may continue. just to be clear, the special counsel understands the scope of the investigation. it is complying with all regulations and orders related to that. thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. general whitaker, you and i dashed my professor came in, someone asks you a yes or no question, don t just repeat the question. answer yes or no. otherwise, during her career, people will think you re not a good lawyer. we know you are a good lawyer. let s see that advice going forward. we did not go to the same november 2018, but device is