President Trump indicated that he will not dictate the actions of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in his role overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller, which could include curtailing the Russia investigation.

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," when asked if he would be okay with Whitaker moving to limit or curtail the Mueller investigation, Trump said, "It's going to be up to him."

Whitaker is now in charge of oversight of Mueller’s investigation after he was appointed acting attorney general. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had been in charge since May 2017, following the recusal of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Mueller's team is investigating Russian election interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Kremlin.

“I think he’s very well aware politically. I think he’s astute politically,” Trump said Sunday of Whitaker. “He’s a very smart person. A very respected person. He’s going to do what’s right. I really believe he’s going to do what’s right.”

Democrats are concerned that Whitaker will, at the direction of Trump, attempt to curb Mueller’s investigation. Whitaker could limit funds, deny subpoenas, and turn down the opening of a new investigation lead.

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The fear that Whitaker, the former chief of staff to Sessions, would take such actions has been bolstered by prior comments he made before he joined the Justice Department about how he disagreed with the special counsel, and actions an attorney general could make to limit the inquiry.

When asked by Fox News’ Chris Wallace if he would or would not overrule Whitaker, the president said he will keep his distance.

“I would not get involved. And all these people that say I’m going to end the investigation, you know, they’ve been saying that now for — how long has this witch hunt gone on? It’s gone on for what?” Trump said.

Over the past 18 months, Mueller’s investigation has been a frequent target of Trump’s ire, often on Twitter. On Thursday, Trump said that Mueller’s investigators were "threatening" people to provide "the answers they want.”

“They are screaming and shouting at people," Trump wrote on Twitter, calling the team a “disgrace to our Nation.”

During the Fox News interview, Trump also said that he did not know Whitaker had been critical of the special counsel before he appointed him to be acting attorney general. “I did not know that. I did not know he took views on the Mueller investigation as such,” Trump said.

Trump said he doesn’t believe that Whitaker's past statements “will have any impact."

When Wallace brought up comments Whitaker made about squeezing the investigation, Trump interjected: “He’s right.”

“What do you do when a person’s right. There is no collusion. He happened to be right. I mean, he said it,” Trump said.

On “The Chris Stigall Show” on June 14, 2017, Whitaker claimed that there was “no evidence of collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Days later on “The Wilkow Majority Show,” Whitaker said the same. “The truth is, there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign,” Whitaker said on the radio show on June 21, 2017. “There was interference by the Russians into the election, but that is not the collusion with the campaign and that is where the Left seems to be just combining those two issues.”

Trump said Sunday that he would not have picked Whitaker if he thought there was collusion.

“So if he said there is collusion, I’m supposed to be taking somebody that says there is?” Trump explained. “Because then I wouldn’t take him for two reasons, but the number one reason is the fact that he would have been wrong. If he said that there’s no collusion, he’s right.”

Earlier this month, Trump told reporters that he had not spoken to Whitaker about the Russia investigation, and claimed he did not know him personally despite praising him in an October interview on Fox News.

On Saturday, Trump told reporters that he will be submitting questions he answered to Mueller next week.