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My colleagues @ktbenner @npfandos and I are livebriefing the Whitaker hearing here nytimes.com/2019/02/08/us/politics/matthew-whitaker-testify-mueller.html
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Whitaker makes news: testifies he hasn't briefed Trump or White House about info from the Mueller investigation, hasn't overruled Mueller or interfered in special counsel's work in any way.
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Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the new ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, should be an auctioneer. His speaking tempo is a blitz.
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Collins, having raised concerns about political theater and character assassination, asks Whitaker if Bruce Ohr is still employed by the Justice Department.
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We're in a 15-minute break. The substantive news so far is that Whitaker has testified he didn't tell Trump or his team any information about the Mueller probe. From a spectacle perspective, the highlight is Whitaker telling Chairman Nadler that Nadler's five minutes were up.
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Finally back. Asked by Lofgren what the basis was for his comment at the Huawei press conference that Mueller investigation is close to completion, Whitaker declines to say
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Not sure how to square Whitaker saying he talked to no one in Trump's circle or the White House about his views of the Mueller investigation when he was a private citizen before joining DOJ, when he interviewed with Don McGahn to be the WH lawyer dealing with it in July 2017.
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Weird moment as Rep. Cedric Richmond demands that Whitaker agree with him that DOJ was created in 1957 by the Civil Rights Act & accuses Whitaker of wasting time when he starts to talk about Ulysses Grant. (Richmond must mean the Civil Rights Division but says again DOJ.)
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Rep.Jeffries: why did you call Mueller's team a lynch mob Whitaker: where'd I do that Jeffries: August 2017 tweet Whitaker: that was the headline of article I tweeted because it was interesting. RT≠endorsement