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On Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions submitted his resignation at the request of President Trump. Sessions’s chief of staff, Andrew Whitaker, will take his place as acting Attorney General until a successor is confirmed.
AP News
The left worries that Whitaker will impede or end the Mueller investigation, but also criticizes Sessions’s actions as Attorney General.
“For Trump, this is a problem solved. Out: an attorney general who, following Justice Department rules and heeding the advice of the department’s ethics professionals, recused himself from the Mueller probe. In: Whitaker, who before joining the department announced to the world how he would deal with the meddlesome Mueller. By starving him of funds...Or by slamming the brakes on Mueller’s ability to follow the evidence against Trump or his family."
Washington Post
“If we have ever seen an appearance of impropriety in our decades of experience, this is it: a criminal subject president appointing his own prosecutor — one who has evidently prejudged aspects of the investigation and mused about how it can be hampered...
“This is not about partisanship. The strong protections against interference in the Watergate investigation were given by an acting attorney general, a Republican, to protect the independence of a special prosecutor investigating a Republican president. Nearly 50 years later, the American people should ask no less.”
New York Times
Many note that “at the [DOJ], Sessions enforced the law in a manner that harmed racial minorities, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. He rolled back Obama-era drug sentencing reforms in an effort to keep nonviolent offenders locked away for longer... He implemented the ‘zero tolerance’ family separation policy... His DOJ defended Trump’s ban on open transgender military service by claiming that trans people are disordered deviants...
“Thousands of people were brutalized by his bigotry, and our country will not soon recover from the malice he unleashed.”
Slate
The right is divided. Some believe it’s time for Mueller’s investigation to come to an end, while others argue that the new Attorney General should allow the investigation to continue unimpeded.
The right is divided. Some believe it’s time for Mueller’s investigation to come to an end, while others argue that the new Attorney General should allow the investigation to continue unimpeded.
Some opine that “Sessions... allowed pressure from the left over two minor contacts with a Russian ambassador to make the decision for him [to recuse himself]... Session’s decision was irresponsible and ill-considered... If Mueller has anything valid to charge the President with, we will find out soon. If not, it’s time to end this farce."
RedState
While “the Attorney General shouldn’t fire Mr. Mueller... Mr. Trump does have a point that Mr. Sessions’ recusal compromised his leadership of the department and made it harder to exert supervision over the FBI...
“[In the next Attorney General] Mr. Trump needs an individual of stature and judgment who will have the trust of the department’s lawyers, who is capable of independence, but who also understands that the Justice Department is part of the executive branch and not a law unto itself.”
Wall Street Journal
Others argue that “while the more casual Whitaker will be able to forge a better relationship with Trump than his stoic former boss, Sessions, Whitaker must resist Trump’s [worst] impulses... Whitaker should ensure that Mueller’s investigation remains insulated under the orbit of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein... not because Whitaker can't necessarily be trusted to oversee the Mueller investigation, but so as to preserve the independence of the Justice Department."
Washington Examiner
Senator-elect Mitt Romney (R-UT) tweeted, “Under Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, it is imperative that the important work of the Justice Department continues, and that the Mueller investigation proceeds to its conclusion unimpeded.”
Why did _________ cross the road? Alpaca climbs into backseat of taxi cab in Peru, flooded creek sends salmon swimming across road, and confused deer runs through Pennsylvania Walmart.
UPI
