House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker “did not deny that the president called him to discuss Michael Cohen, the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District.” | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Congress Lawmakers clash over Trump’s talks with Whitaker

Former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that he was involved in conversations about the Justice Department’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). But the Republican side of the committee gave vastly different accounts of what happened behind closed doors.

Whitaker discussed the scope of the investigation in addition to the recusal of Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Nadler told reporters after meeting privately with Whitaker.


But two counsels for the Republican side of the committee who were in the room during Whitaker’s interview said the former acting attorney general told the panel that nobody from the White House asked him to reverse Berman’s recusal from overseeing the Cohen investigation.

“You just don’t undo recusals,” Whitaker told the committee, according to the two GOP lawyers, who added that Whitaker said he never had conversations with individuals who work in the Southern District.

That account appears to dispute a New York Times report last month that Trump asked Whitaker whether Berman could lead the investigation into Trump’s hush money payments to women who have alleged prior affairs with him. Berman, a Trump appointee, has recused himself from overseeing that probe.

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Nadler also said Whitaker “did not deny that the president called him to discuss Michael Cohen, the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District.”

“He would not say no,” Nadler added.

But the Republican counsels said Whitaker simply responded that he “did not remember” any conversations with Trump about Cohen, but “couldn’t say with certainty one way or the other.”

“He would have remembered if the president expressed frustration with the case,” one of the GOP counsels said. “He does not remember that.”

Additionally, according to Nadler, Whitaker “was involved in discussions about the scope” of the New York investigation. Whitaker was also involved in conversations about whether the Southern District “went too far in pursuing the campaign-finance investigation in which the president was listed” as Individual-1, Nadler said, without naming others who participated in those conversations.

The Republican counsels said Whitaker was simply casting doubt on the “legal theories” surrounding the campaign-finance investigation into Cohen, who is heading to prison in May to serve a three-year prison sentence for crimes related to hush-money payments he made on behalf of Trump. The counsels also said Whitaker called some of the charges in the case “specious.”

Nadler said Whitaker also told the committee on Wednesday that he was “directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more U.S. attorneys.” The Republican side of the panel said Whitaker described those conversations as routine “personnel decisions” between himself and senior members of his staff.

The chairman’s comments highlight the Judiciary Committee’s investigation into whether the president obstructed justice by trying to meddle in the ongoing federal probes. Nadler kicked off a wide-ranging investigation last month into obstruction, abuses of power and corruption.

Whitaker testified publicly to the committee last month, declining to answer certain questions about his private conversations with the president. He told lawmakers that he had never discussed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation with Trump. Before he joined the Justice Department as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff, Whitaker was highly critical of Mueller’s investigation.

Whitaker told the committee last month: “At no time has the White House asked for, nor have I provided, any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel’s investigation or any other investigation.”

Nadler said the committee planned to “analyze the revelations and see where they lead.”