What about Bob? How Jeff Sessions’ firing could cripple or kill Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation
- Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general, has broad power to halt the investigation that has infuriated Donald Trump
- Whitaker previously said the Mueller probe risked becoming a “witch hunt”, and it could be effectively brought to a halt by slashing its budget
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is answering to a new boss, Matthew Whitaker, who has openly criticised his Russia investigation – and has the power to cripple it or end it, just as US President Donald Trump wishes.
Trump never forgave Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the probe that Mueller now runs, and the president delivered on that long-festering frustration on Wednesday, a day after the midterm elections were over.
He forced Sessions to resign and named Whitaker, a former US attorney whose criticisms of Mueller have echoed the president’s, as acting attorney general until Trump nominates someone who would need Senate confirmation.
Whitaker, who became Sessions’s chief of staff last year, has left a paper trail of his views on Mueller’s inquiry.
Protecting Mueller and his investigation is paramount
In July 2017, Whitaker said during an interview on CNN that he could envision a scenario in which an acting attorney general doesn’t fire Mueller but “just reduces his budget to so low that his investigations grind to almost a halt”.