The appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general could be the beginning of a "slow-motion Saturday night massacre" for special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday, particularly if Whitaker attempts to stop the probe's progress.
"What we have here is the danger of a slow motion Saturday night massacre, death by 1,000 cuts, cuts in funding that could strangle the investigation, cuts in authority, cuts in subpoenas that may not be public," the Connecticut Democrat told CNN's "New Day."
"I'm going to be introducing legislation that will require, absolutely require, full disclosure of all the findings and evidence of the Mueller investigation if he is in any way forced to resign or if he is fired."
Blumenthal, along with Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, and Mazie Hirono, of Hawaii have filed a lawsuit against Whitaker's appointment, saying that it violates the appointments clause of the Constitution that requires principal officers to be appointed only after Senate confirmation.
He acknowledged that there is "no overt evidence" or indication that Whitaker has sought to undermine the probe, but there also might not be quite yet.
"If he has declined to approve a subpoena or an indictment, which he could do in supervising the investigation, we may not know about it at this point," said Blumenthal.
Whitaker's appointment has come under fire because of comments he'd made that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia, and because he'd called Mueller's investigation a waste of time that could be stopped by denying it any funding.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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