Matthew Whitaker is now a senior counselor in the associate attorney general’s office. Legal Whitaker to stay at Justice Department following stint as acting AG

Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker will remain at the Justice Department despite William Barr’s being sworn in to lead the department.

Whitaker, who served as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions until President Donald Trump tapped him for the acting role in November, is now a senior counselor in the associate attorney general’s office, a department spokesperson said Friday.


Attorney General William Barr was sworn in at the White House on Thursday after the Senate voted 54-45 to confirm him.

The Office of the Associate Attorney General, whose titular role is currently filled on an acting basis, oversees, among other things, the DOJ’s divisions on civil rights, antitrust, tax and the environment.

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Whitaker was a controversial player in the president’s Cabinet, drawing backlash from congressional Democrats who protested his past public statements that were critical of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, an inquiry Whitaker oversaw during his time as acting attorney general. Democrats also attacked Whitaker for his time serving as an advisory board member for a patent company banned from the industry by the Federal Trade Commission for fraud.

The former acting attorney general was the first major Trump official to face a grilling by the House Democratic majority, testifying in a contentious hearing before the House Judiciary Committee last Friday.

Whitaker’s career plans had until now been something of a mystery. On Monday, a representative of the National Sheriffs’ Association offered the outgoing acting attorney general a gift after he wrapped up a speech to the organization during a Washington, D.C., conference.

“Great, is it a new job?” Whitaker quipped.