A new report from the Washington Post claims that new acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will not recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — and he also will block the special counsel from subpoenaing the president.
The Post cites two sources who say that Whitaker will not recuse himself from overseeing the probe, despite the fact that he has in the past mused about ways to shut down the probe by cutting off its funding.
The sources also said that they “strongly believed” that Whitaker “would not approve any request from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to subpoena the president,” which would eliminate the danger of the president perjuring himself under oath during an interview with the special counsel.
The Post also reports that outgoing Attorney General Jeff Sessions wanted to stay at his job “as a means of protecting the special counsel’s work so that, when it was concluded, the public would have confidence it had not been manipulated.”