Matt Whitaker Douglas Graham | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images

Newly appointed acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker's past critiques about special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe spurred immediate calls for his recusal from Democrats and legal experts. Whitaker took on oversight of the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The Trump administration's shake-up on Wednesday, in which Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fired, is raising concerns that Whitaker's appointment constitutes a potential obstruction of justice. "The picture that's coming through is that of a staunch party loyalist. This isn't encouraging," said Liza Goitein, co-director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Whitaker, for his part, said in a statement Wednesday evening that he was "committed to leading a fair Department with the highest ethical standards." The Washington Post reported Thursday that he has no intention of recusing himself, citing people close to the new acting attorney general. Jay Sekulow, Trump's lawyer in the Mueller probe, said on his radio show Thursday that Whitaker's promotion will have "no effect day-to-day" on the special counsel, Bloomberg reported.

Whitaker's words

Whitaker, 49, was named acting Attorney General after President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions just hours after the midterm elections. Trump tweet A former Iowa U.S. attorney during the George W. Bush administration, Whitaker ran for public office as a Republican and was the executive director for a conservative nonprofit before being tapped to join the Justice Department as Sessions' chief of staff in September 2017. One month prior to taking the post at DOJ, Whitaker wrote an op-ed for CNN arguing that if Mueller "were to continue to investigate the financial relationships without a broadened scope in his appointment, then this would raise serious concerns that the special counsel's investigation was a mere witch hunt." Whitaker was agreeing with the president, who had said a month before the op-ed was published that a special counsel investigation of the Trump family's finances would be "a violation." The piece reflected his prior comments as a pundit for the news network. In August 2017, Whitaker said on CNN that if the special counsel "does go beyond the 2016 election and get into Trump Organization finances unrelated to the 2016 election, and really unrelated to Russian coordination if it even exists, I think that would be crossing a red line." He continued: "I think that's when the deputy attorney general ... needs to step in and pull the reins back on Bob Mueller if he starts to go outside of those bounds of his delegation of authority." The No. 2 DOJ official, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, had taken over for Sessions in overseeing the special counsel's probe. Whitaker also promoted an op-ed from former federal prosecutor George Parry, who argued in August 2017 that Trump's legal team should resist cooperating with the special counsel. Whitaker tweet Later that month, Whitaker in another appearance on CNN argued against accusations that Trump's hotel in Washington, D.C., presented a conflict of interest for the president. Whitaker DC Hotel Trump tweet Whitaker also has close connections to Sam Clovis, a former Trump campaign aide who was reportedly questioned by Mueller. Whitaker chaired Clovis' Iowa State Treasurer campaign in 2014, and Clovis told Talking Points Memo on Wednesday that "He and I are very good friends, very close friends, and I'm very happy for him." What's more, Whitaker appeared to defend Trump campaign officials' meeting with Kremlin-connected Russians at Trump Tower in June 2016. "There is no federal crime of collusion. So we're either looking at espionage charges, which seems farcical with the evidence we have now, or we're looking at campaign finance violations, but I still don't see how there's anything of value there," Whitaker said.

Calls for recusal