Kevin McAlister

Opinion contributor

Editor's note: This column was originally published on Oct. 16, 2018.

Many breathed a sigh of relief last week when President Donald Trump indicated he had no current plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, the man overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. It turns out it was a playbook sleight of hand trick from a president who uses the news cycle as a weapon of mass distraction.

While we were all watching the Rosenstein crisis unfold, Trump was laying the groundwork for the biggest assault yet on the Mueller investigation: he aims to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions with a little-known political ally — Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker. The Washington Post reported that Trump had talked to Whitaker himself about the job, and Trump did not deny it. "Well, I never talk about that, but I can tell you Matt Whitaker's a great guy. I mean, I know Matt Whitaker. But I never talk about conversations that I had," he said on Fox and Friends.

Then, Sunday night on CBS' 60 Minutes, he refused to pledge that he'd keep Sessions ("we'll see what happens" in the midterms) or that he wouldn't shut down the Mueller investigation. "I don't pledge anything," Trump said.

Whitaker would serve the president, not justice

Make no mistake — a Whitaker Justice Department would be a Trump Political Protection Plan. His record as a Republican operative and even in his time at the Justice Department make it clear, Whitaker would be the president’s willing choice to oversee and sabotage the special counsel’s investigation to the president’s liking.

Don’t take my word for it — just listen to Matt Whitaker himself. He’s been against the Mueller investigation from day one, and even offered up ways the investigation might be kneecapped from within. In an op-ed, Whitaker argued that calls to appoint a special counsel to investigate Russia’s attacks were “craven attempts to score cheap political points.” In an interview on CNN last year, Whitaker said, “I could see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire Bob Mueller but he just reduces his budget so low that his investigations grinds to almost a halt.”

Unlike Rosenstein, a Republican but a career law enforcement official with top-shelf professional credentials, Whitaker’s path has always been political — and partisan. He had a short tenure as a Bush-appointed U.S. attorney during which he was accused of having pursued a charge of extortion against an Iowa state senator for political purposes; In 2007, Des Moines Democrat Matt McCoy was found not guilty in just under two hours of forcing a business partner to pay him $2,000. More than 90 percent of federal court cases result in a conviction; Whitaker’s swift and stunning failure in his most high-profile prosecution underscored that the charge was unsubstantiated and driven by partisanship.

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While most U.S. attorneys go on to partnerships at respected law firms, Whitaker’s post-administration path was partisan and polemical: he became the executive director of a conservative watchdog group funded by dark money, which distinguished itself mainly by filing nuisance complaints against Democratic senators like Claire McCaskill and making partisan charges against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As a Trump surrogate in 2016, he all but chanted “lock her up,” suggesting in this newspaper that he would have indicted Clinton over her mishandled emails.

If the unusual background of this potential next chief law enforcement officer of the United States isn’t enough reason to worry, take note: He’s reliably taken pages from the same partisan playbook after he was installed as chief of staff at the Justice Department. For instance, he has suggested Mueller was “dangerously close to crossing" the "red line" of investigating Trump’s business dealings. That's a red line Trump set himself, and disregards what Mueller could discover about Trump's motivations for his kid-glove treatment of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If it sounds like Matt Whitaker is Trump’s dream appointee as attorney general, that’s because he is. Chief of Staff John Kelly even called Whitaker the White House’s “eyes and ears” in a Justice Department it was “at war” with over Mueller.

Whitaker could stuff Mueller report in a drawer

What can he do as attorney general? He can restrict the special counsel’s budget, prevent him from following credible allegations, or overrule a subpoena to compel the president to testify. All these actions would be hidden to the public and Congress since the special counsel regulations don’t require them to be reported.

Even if Mueller is allowed to finish the investigation, he will submit his final report to the attorney general. This fact-based report will have the Justice Department’s conclusions about Russia’s attacks and any assistance they received from their American accomplices. Whitaker will have broad discretion to claim executive privilege on the report and could stuff it in a drawer without sending it to Congress or releasing it publicly — exactly what Rudy Giuliani has called on the attorney general to do.

What Trump does in the next weeks about Sessions will mark an inflection point. Any path that includes Matt Whitaker will be a partisan escape route. The flashing signs are getting brighter each day. It’s time for Congress to protect the Justice Department’s investigation and insist on public release of the special counsel’s final report.

Kevin McAlister is the director of the bipartisan group Law Works. Follow him on Twitter: @kevindmcalister