Attorney General Jeff Sessions just announced his not-so-voluntary resignation as attorney general and Hillary Clinton has reason to be at least a little nervous.

President Trump had publicly ridiculed Sessions for failing to investigate Clinton for months. His replacement, at least on an interim basis, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, has no such reservations. Little more than a year ago, he was all but chanting “lock her up!”

Less inflammatory but still toward that end, Whitaker was signing polite press releases as executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust. He said that Clinton’s handling and subsequent cover up of sensitive information was “egregious” and “downright shameful.”

“As a former U.S. attorney,” Whttaker wrote in May 2017, “I believed there was a strong case to bring against her and she should be extremely grateful that has not happened.”

Would he open that investigation? It seems doubtful Whitaker would take such a significant step while serving as a merely interim attorney general. But he is open to the idea, which is more than could be said of Sessions.

At very least, Whitaker could lay the groundwork for an investigation — and that should be enough to make the Clintons nervous.

[Related: Humiliating details of Trump's firing of Sessions emerge]