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Request or action to be taken by the special counsel? >> mr. chairman, i see that your five minutes is up, and so i'm -- i am hear voluntarily. we have agreed to five minute rounds. and -- >> committee -- >> i think that's a fine place to end the five minute rule. >> the committee will come to order. i will point out we didn't enforce the five minute rule on acting attorney general whitaker. we will -- >> i understand. i was saying that might be a good breaking point for you. >> the attorney general was in the middle of saying something. answer the question, please. >> regular order. >> should...

Five minutes are up. you know, that's acting attorney general whitaker taking a page from the fairly sad play book of judge kavanaugh, trying to lash out at the questioners rather than expectfully answer the question, or respectfully decline to answer the question. to acting attorney general whitaker, it will be within his right, and i suspect we're going to hear him do this all day long to say listen, this could compromise an ongoing investigation, and i decline to answer that question. but i see it as a sign of weakness, if not fear when a hard question is posed and you then tell the chairpe...

Communications so that they can be made fully and without fear of them being made public. however, i think we're getting into a built of a dicey area when acting attorney general whitaker starts to sort of raise willie nilly the possibility of executive privilege expect to communications that involve yes, the president of the united states, chris, but also the subject and perhaps target of a criminal probe. i mean, i don't want to say one person's executive privilege is another person's obstruction of justice, but when these things get intertwined, it's not just a simple question of applying t...

Pleases. he's there to answer the questions to the extent he can without it violating a legitimate privilege or an ongoing investigation. and to -- it's sort of impertinent to ask the questioner to lay out the factual basis for the questions. but let me just say, chris, my expectations were low going into this, that we were going to get much of substance out of acting attorney general whitaker. now my expectations have shifted and i only hope he doesn't continue to say things that would be demeaning or demoralizing of the more than 100,000 outstanding employees of the department of justice. he...

That whitaker that he was briefed. he said he has not spoken to senior white house aides about the investigation. he's not going further than that. the question now is what comes next? if all the democrats' questions are stone walled by whitaker, nadler said he does not want to issue a subpoena, but he did seem interested in deposing him, bringing him back to ask more questions in a deposition and said he would release the transcript to the public. i think the question now, the owness on the democrats is how do you proceed and ensure that you at least get something out of these oversight hears...