general. trump learned when he appointed sessions that he made a mistake which he said many times because sessions had to recuse himself, and sessions did the ethical thing an attorney general is supposed to do, and that s recuse himself when he had prior involvement in the alleged or the potential crime, and he recused himself, as he should have. whitaker didn t recuse himself, but whitaker did not take the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york off the case after he had recused himself because even that was a step too far, but trump tried to get him to do that. he did not, i believe, appoint bill barr, who has a good reputation in washington, without having some belief he wouldn t be making a second sessions appointment and he wanted someone to take care of him. this is his achilles heel. this is what will bring him down. i assure you what we ve seen already has shown this to be the most corrupt administration
circle or at the white house about my views of the special counsel s investigations? correct. when i was a private citizen and not at the department of justice? correct. no, i did not. okay, look, i have pointed this out before, if you watch this show. and i think it s it bears repeating, so pay close attention. whitaker didn t have to talk to the president about mueller, at least not in person or on the phone or whatever. you know how he got his messages across? right here on the live tv! right here on this show. i can 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 a budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. that was july 2017. just two months later, whitaker was named chief of staff to then-a.g. jeff sessions. later taking on the job of acting ag when sessions was fired by the president. so it sure sounds like the president got the message. and then th
matt whitaker because whitaker didn t follow through to put guardrails around this probe. is that ethical behavior in your view as a lawyer? so let s talk about the whitaker issue. geoff berman did the right thing. just the appearance of the conflict of interest, he did the right thing. for whatever reason he decided to do it. the president didn t think it was the right thing. even if matt whitaker asked geoff berman to get involved in that problem, he wasn t getting involved in the probe, he recused himself. he had obligations as a lawyer and obligations to the justice department as a presidentially appointed senate confirmed united states attorney. we don t know whether the president made that inquiry or not. he s denied it. whitaker hasn t confirmed it. i don t believe that even if the
and matthew whitaker for acting ag, why were they chosen. they were all chosen after they argued against investigations of the president. sure, matt whitaker claimed that he didn t talk to anyone in the white house about the mueller investigation. congresswoman, just to be clear, you re asking me whether or not i talked with anybody essentially in the president s circle or at the white house about my views of the special counsel s investigations? correct. when i was a private citizen and not at the department of justice? correct. no, i did not. okay, look, i have pointed this out before, if you watch this show. and i think it s it bears repeating, so pay close attention. whitaker didn t have to talk to the president about mueller, at least not in person or on the phone or whatever. you know how he got his messages across? right here on the live tv! right here on this show. i can see a scenario where
matt whitaker to interfere in the investigation of his personal attorney, michael cohen, an investigation that implicated the president himself. there s a lot of fake news out there. no, i didn t. reporter: the president s appointment of whitaker was controversial from the start. whitaker was a staunch trump supporter and harsh critic of special counsel robert mueller. mr. president, what do you say to all the criticism of matt whitaker and the calls for him to recuse himself, given what he s said about the russia investigation? well, matt whitaker, i don t know matt whitaker. reporter: but the times reports that not long after whitaker got the job, the president asked him to put a person he believed would be more sympathetic in charge of the investigation, specifically, u.s. attorney geoffrey berman, who had recused himself because of his ties to the president s lawyer, rudy giuliani. it never happened. at his contentious hearing before the house judiciary committee earlier