In August 2017, roughly a month before his appointment as Sessions’ chief of staff, Whitaker penned an Op-Ed for CNN in which he suggested the Russia investigation was “going too far” and could be “a witch hunt.”

Trump claimed last week that he hadn’t met Whitaker prior to appointing him to head the Justice Department, despite having told “Fox & Friends” in October that he knew him.

“I can tell you Matt Whitaker’s a great guy,” the president had told the hosts of his favorite cable news program. “I mean, I know Matt Whitaker.”

This story has been updated with Trump’s past comments about knowing Whitaker.