Dec 23, 2018 - Politics & Policy

"The red line": Trump lashes out at his acting attorney general

Matt whitaker in a suit and tie

Photo: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

President Trump lashed out at acting attorney general Matt Whitaker twice in the past few weeks when he found out Whitaker is overseeing the Trump-related charges Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to, CNN's Laura Jarrett and Pamela Brown report.

Why it matters, from an email to Axios by MSNBC analyst Matt Miller: "It is Trump’s worst intervention at DOJ since he took office. Far worse than his interventions with Comey. He is both a subject of this investigation ... and he’s pressuring an official he hand-picked and whose entire future depends on him."

  • Sources told CNN that Trump did not ask Whitaker to stop the investigation, but instead felt the situation was unfair.
  • "It is really the red line," Miller told Axios. "But I think people have gotten so used to him doing inappropriate things with DOJ that they don’t even recognize it."

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