President Trump stops to talk to members of the media as he walks to board Marine One and depart from the South Lawn of the White House in October 2018. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday sought to play down speculation that he had appointed Matthew Whitaker acting attorney general to curtail the special counsel investigation, telling reporters that he doesn’t know Whitaker and hasn’t spoken to him about the probe. “I didn’t speak to Matt Whitaker about it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House en route to Paris. “I don’t know Matt Whitaker.” His comments came two days after Trump ousted Jeff Sessions as attorney general and installed Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff and a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, as the top official at the Justice Department. The Washington Post reported this week that one of the reasons Trump liked Whitaker was because Whitaker had briefed him on many occasions because the president preferred not to talk to Sessions, whom Trump had often disparaged publicly. Since stepping into his new role, Whitaker has faced questions — principally from Democrats — about whether he should recuse himself from overseeing the special counsel investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election, given that he had previously criticized the probe in opinion pieces and as a television commentator. Whitaker’s appointment has also prompted questions from Democrats about whether Trump brought him aboard to curtail or shut down special counsel… [Read full story]
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