Acting attorney general Whitaker was notified in advance of Cohen plea

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Acting attorney general Whitaker was notified in advance of Cohen plea

By Matt Zapotosky
November 29 at 2:50 PM

Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker was notified in advance that President Trump’s former personal attorney would plead guilty Thursday to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project that Trump and his company pursued while he was running for president, a person familiar with the matter said.

The notification could strain relations between Whitaker and Trump, who reacted to the plea by accusing his former attorney, Michael Cohen, of lying to spare himself prison time.

As acting attorney general, Whitaker is the nominal supervisor of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who has been investigating Cohen and signed his plea Thursday.

That is important because as a legal commentator before he came to the Justice Department, Whitaker was highly critical of Mueller’s work, even suggesting an acting attorney general could stifle Mueller’s budget to shut down his probe. Democrats and others have called unsuccessfully for Whitaker to recuse himself from the case, in part because of his past comments, fearing he might take steps to interfere with the ongoing investigation.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/acting-attorney-general-whitaker-was-notified-in-advance-of-cohen-plea/2018/11/29/f1b64598-f404-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html

[saidsimplesimon]

1. Could that be why IT

circled back to our WH before departing for S.A.? Sycophant's serving their master is so un-American. imo

[NightWatcher]

2. Was that right before Whitaker called trump at the Christmas tree lighting?

People are saying that trump nearly had a panic attack and fled the ceremony earlier than anticipated with no warning after a phone call.

[leanforward]

5. I recall something mentioned by a commentator last evening.

[wishstar]

3. On MSNBC, Michael Schmidt of NYT and Nicolle Wallace said Rosenstein is still overseeing Mueller

so day to day operations of Mueller probe are still handled by Rosenstein who has to notify Whitaker of important developments such as plea deals and indictments. No doubt Rosenstein with his years of experience at DOJ, is quite capable of handling stupid newbie Whitaker and outsmarting his new boss.

[Nevilledog]

4. Wonder if the notification to Whitaker was around the time Trump...

.. Got that phone call during the tree lighting ceremony which caused him to suddenly leave?. Let's have a look at Whitaker's call logs.

[CentralMass]

6. I don't imagine that raid on the law firm helped.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/418928-federal-agents-raid-office-of-tax-firm-that-previously-worked-for