| Dear Katy, Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions yesterday. The new acting attorney general is Matt Whitaker, a Trump lapdog who is opposed to the special counsel investigation.1 Reports indicate that he will take over supervision of Robert Mueller's investigation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.2 That is simply unacceptable. The results of Tuesday's election made it clear that the American people demand a check on Trump, but Congress still hasn't passed legislation to protect special counsel Mueller's investigation into Trump's Russia ties. Congress must act right away to protect the integrity of Mueller's investigation and preserve its findings before Trump's stooges sabotage the investigation. Tell Congress: Pass legislation to protect the special counsel investigation. Click here to sign the petition. Trump's demand that Sessions resign was unsurprising, but his decision to install Whitaker in his place is a direct attack on the rule of law and our democracy. Whitaker complained that Mueller's investigation might hurt Trump and his family's reputations, defended the Trump Tower meeting with Russians, derided Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt," proposed slashing Mueller's budget in order to sabotage the investigation, suggested that Rosenstein should interfere with the scope of the investigation, retweeted an op-ed on the "Mueller Lynch Mob," suggested hiding the Mueller evidence from the public, complained about aggressive tactics, opposed legislation to protect the special counsel from White House interference and chaired the 2014 political campaign of Sam Clovis, a grand jury witness in the investigation.3,4 He made it perfectly clear that he will undermine or completely destroy Mueller's work. Mueller's investigation produced indictments or guilty pleas from 32 people, including four former Trump advisers.5 Earlier this week, reports emerged that White House officials were concerned that Mueller was on the verge of indicting Donald Trump Jr.6 That's why Trump wants his stooge to step-in. In April, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation to protect Mueller from being fired without just cause.7 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring it to the floor for a vote, hiding behind the excuse that he didn't think Trump would try to fire Mueller.8 But McConnell is playing games. Trump reportedly already tried to fire Mueller in 2017 and only backed down when White House staff threatened to quit.9 And now that Trump crossed the line and installed his lapdog to oversee the investigation, every member of Congress must be forced to go on the record about whether they want to defend democracy or roll over for Trump. Click the link below to demand that Congress immediately put a check on Trump and protect the integrity of the Mueller investigation. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Whitaker_unacceptable?t=7&akid=30582%2E12967895%2E1QuOXz Thanks for everything you do, Kaili Lambe, Organizing Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets P.S. CREDO has joined the Trump is Not Above the Law coalition in calling for nationwide rapid response protests today – Thursday, Nov. 8 – at 5:00 p.m. local time. Click here to find an event near you. Add your name: References: - Kevin Breuninger, "Trump's new Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who has criticized the Mueller probe, will now oversee it," CNBC, Nov. 7, 2018.
- Darren Samuelsohn and Caitlin Oprysko, "Sessions ousted," POLITICO, Nov. 7, 2018.
- Matthew Whitaker, "Mueller's investigation of Trump is going too far," CNN, Nov. 7, 2018.
- Ken Dilanian, "Tweet," Nov. 7, 2018.
- Andrew Prokop, "All of Robert Mueller's indictments and plea deals in the Russia investigation so far," Vox, Oct. 10, 2018.
- Jonathan Chait, "Donald Trump Jr. Expecting to Be Indicted by Mueller Soon," Intelligencer, Nov. 7, 2018.
- Brian Murphy, "These Republicans co-wrote a bill to protect Mueller. Now they won't push for it," The News & Observer, Aug. 22, 2018.
- Lauren Gambino, "McConnell says he will not allow vote on bill protecting Mueller from firing," The Guardian, April 17, 2018.
- Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, "Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, but Backed Off When White House Counsel Threatened to Quit," The New York Times, Jan. 25, 2018.
photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images |
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