arthel: some lawmakers expressing concern about the fate of russia investigation after president trump appointed mat thui matthew whittaker as acting attorney general. the active attorney general matthew whittaker is under pressure from the left, he needs to recuse from special counsel investigation in part because of previous comments he made about the russia probe, comments such as this. i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with recess appointment and that attorney general doesn t fire bob mueller but he just reduce it is budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost halt. democrats are accusing the president of trying to undermine the russia probe, top democrats, 3 in the house and one in the senate telling committees plan
jon: acting attorney general matthew whitaker under growing scrutiny for his past criticisms of the mueller investigation, which he now oversees. more on that. reporter: the acting attorney general matthew whitaker is under a lot of pressure from the left. democrats saying he needs to recuse himself from the special counsel investigation in part because of previous comments he made about the russia probe, comments such as this. i can see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn t fire bob mueller but just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. reporter: democrats are accusing the president of trying to undermine the russia probe. top democrats on four committees, three in the house, one in the senate, sent a letter to the white house counsel telling them the committee s
recess appointment and that attorney general doesn t fire bob mueller but reduces his budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. now demonstrators are rallying support for the special counsel, and calling on congress to protect the integrity of mueller s investigation. joining me now, elizabeth holzman, former democratic congressman from new york, and judiciary committee member during the watergate scandal, and the author of the case for impeaching trump, and legal analyst, etd tditor and chief ow fair and senior governmental studies at the brookings institute, and elizabeth fang, i want to start with you, is the appointment legal, and if not, what can congress do about it? i think there are serious questions about the legality, from a conflict of interest point of view. you stop and think about it, the appearance is that the president
prosecutor s investigation. if i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment, and that attorney general doesn t fire bob mueller but he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. if matthew whitaker isn t smart enough to know that everyone around him all day regards him as a potential criminal suspect, if he has to hear that from me in order to realize it, then he is not smart enough to realize the other very important thing about everyone he will be dealing with in the justice department every day. every one of them is much smarter than he is. every one of the prosecutors he will be dealing with from rod rosenstein on down are much better legal scholars and much better legal practitioners. they are profoundly dangerous to him every time he opens his mouth. and so when rod rosenstein was quoted today as saying matthew
with a special prosecutor. we know what matthew whitaker wants to do for donald trump because he has said so publicly. he wants to end the special prosecutor s investigation. if i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment, and that attorney general doesn t fire bob mueller but he just reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. if matthew whitaker isn t smart enough to know that everyone around him all day regards him as a potential criminal suspect, if he has to hear that from me in order to realize it, then he is not smart enough to realize the other very important thing about everyone he will be dealing with in the justice department every day. every one of them is much smarter than he is. every one of the prosecutors he will be dealing with from rod rosenstein on down are much better legal scholars and much better legal practitioners.