from. they saw political influence not only to advance their own financial interests but to advance the political interests of at least one foreign official, a ukrainian government official, who sought the dismissal of the u.s. ambassador to ukraine. here s how the feds say fruman and parnas did it. they allegedly took hundreds of thousands of dollars from a ukrainian government official. they then funneled this chunk of change through an llc they set up to hide the fact that they were behind the money. the funds that went to a pro-trump super pac and to former texas republican congressman pete sessions recruited to help them oust ambassador yovanovitch. sessions wasn t named but cnn identified based upon campaign finance records and previous remarks. start there. cnn crime and justice reporter withous, outside that courthouse in lower manhattan. i understand you just learned
him advice and counsel. i was aware of everything going out of the department of justic justice. that general sessions wasn t recused from. i think the president was comfortable that you continue the momentum of that affirmative justice, we have established in addressing these important parity issues like reducing violent crime, combating the opioid crisis, and others of the president felt i was the best position to do the duties of attorney general. thank you, mr. chairman. i will just say to mr. whitaker, my question in a normal oversight committee, it would be vastly different than the direction i m going to go. because we have kind of wandered into this other stream over here. i m going to ask you some questions. the long-standing constitutionally-based department of justice policy holds that a sitting president cannot be indicted. that s based on the last review under the clinton and administration. is that still in effect, or has a change?
that was going on at the department of justice, that i obviously that general sessions wasn t recused from. i think the president was comfortable that to continue the momentum at the department of justice, that we had established, in addressing these important priority issues like reducing violent crime, combating the opioid crisis and others, that the president felt i was best positioned to do the duties of attorney general. thank you, mr. chairman. i ll just say to mr. whitaker, my questions in a normal oversight committee would be vastly different than the direction i m going to go because we ve kind of wandered into this other stream over here. so i m going to ask you some questions. the longstanding constitutionally based department of justice policy holds that a sitting president cannot be indicted. and that s based on the last review which happened under the clinton administration. is that still in effect or has
one of the most sprieszing things is whitaker was interviewed by trump s legal team as they considered bringing him on to be an attack dog against mueller and one of our other legal analysts had suggested that whitaker could have learned some strategy perhaps, confidential information during that interview. paul, do you think that s possible? oh, i think it s possible, and i think when you look at the history of this, the president met with whitaker. he was an intermediary between sessions and the justice department when sessions wasn t getting along with the president. for the president to say he doesn t even know who he is really disingenuous. i suspect whitaker s tenure will be about as long as the mooch s tenure was when he had served as communications director, was it? it was less than a dozen days. why do you think that he will his tenure will be short? because the president already looks like he is throwing him
we appreciate that. we appreciate you being part of that discussion. matthew whittaker, were you surprised that jeff sessions was fired within minutes of president trump determining that the gop had held on to the senate and that matthew whittaker was named acting attorney general? well, i was a little bit surprised with regard to the speed. a little bit surprised that attorney general sessions wasn t allowed to stay until the end of the week, which apparently he had requested. and, frankly, mr. whittaker s credentials for the job are simply his personal and political loyalty to president trump. so i can only imagine how this is playing out with the workforce in the department of justice and the fbi. and i don t think it s positive. one of his credentials appears to also be disdain for the mueller probe. so he has expressed on television and in op-eds he