The Democrat poised to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is ready to leverage subpoena power against key players in the federal Russia investigation.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, currently the ranking member of the panel, said Sunday that he intends to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and first on his list of officials to interview is acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, whose appointment he doubts was legal.
“Our very first witness after Jan. 3, we will subpoena — or we will summon, not necessarily subpoena — Mr. Whitaker,” the New York Democrat said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Democrats have warned that the forced resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week puts the country on the brink of a constitutional crisis. They have decried also Whitaker’s appointment to the post. Whitaker, who served as Sessions’ chief of staff, has in the past been critical of the investigation. For instance, in an opinion piece last year he said Mueller’s office had breached the scope of its inquiry and that funding cuts could be used to contain it.
Trump had publicly berated Sessions for choosing to recuse himself from overseeing Mueller’s Russia investigation. Whitaker, however, now faces pressure to step down from the same supervisory role over statements he has made in the past expressing opposition to the probe.
[Related: Lindsey Graham: No need for Matthew Whitaker to recuse himself from Russia investigation]
With Democrats taking the House in the midterm elections last week, Nadler touted his party’s newfound ability to offer cover to Mueller — and an avenue of transparency for the special counsel should Whitaker try to bury the final report compiled by Mueller’s team.
“We could subpoena the final report. We could subpoena Mueller and ask him in front of the committee, ‘what was in your final report,'” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Those are things we could do. But the fact is any such interference would be a pattern of obstruction of justice especially since — and [Whitaker] should recuse himself because he has expressed total hostility to the investigation.”
