![]() “I’m confused, I really am,” Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries told Whitaker at one point. John Yoo: Whitaker’s appointment is unconstitutionalīut Friday marked his first oversight hearing on Capitol Hill. And then came his stint as a CNN commentator in 2017, during which he blasted Mueller and opined that his probe had “gone too far.” All of this received heavy scrutiny as the constitutional basis of his appointment was challenged in the courts. Later, he was the executive director of a conservative nonprofit funded by dark money. He also served as a paid advisory-board member of a fraudulent invention-promotion firm. ![]() attorney in Iowa, but spent far longer in private practice and partisan politics. But Whitaker was not the obvious replacement-he served for a few years as a U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Whitaker late last year to replace Jeff Sessions, whose recusal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in early 2017 was viewed by the president as an unforgivable betrayal. Nadler cracked a smile, but from that point on, the rules of engagement seemed clear: Whitaker, with just days remaining in his legally dubious role as the interim head of the Justice Department, appeared to be playing to an audience of one. attorney turned toilet salesman, told the House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerry Nadler. “Your five minutes is up,” Matthew Whitaker, an ex–U.S. Though 501c3 groups can legally withhold the identity of their contributors and generally do so, there may be a distinct irony when a group dedicated to transparency keeps its funding sources in the shadows.It took about five minutes of questioning for the acting attorney general to provoke gasps and jeers in the congressional hearing room. There was no immediate reply to a request for comment from Whitaker made through the Justice Department. That group is a nonprofit built to give conservative and libertarian philanthropists “any level of privacy they want,” according to its marketing materials.Ī FACT spokesman declined to provide any details on donors or any on-the-record response to other questions. Whitaker’s foundation was initially formed and then primarily supported with funds from another organization called Donor’s Trust. Whitaker appeared to exert tight control over a three-person board of directors that included just one unsalaried member, according to the group’s IRS filings in 2015-16. Viola, a vice president at Charity Navigator.īorochoff suggested that Whitaker’s board of directors at FACT didn’t appear to be independent enough to apply the brakes on his campaign partisanship. His 2016 salary was $402,000 the average CEO or executive director at 380 advocacy or education charities in that year made a salary of $173,099, according to Matthew J. In 20, Whitaker earned a total of $654,000 from FACT - 30 percent of its entire spending of $2.2 million over that two-year span. The opinion pieces identified Whitaker as FACT’s leader. During the last presidential race, Whitaker argued in July 2016 newspaper opinion pieces that Clinton should be prosecuted for her handling of her private email server - a favorite talking point of Donald Trump. Yet the group has engaged in one partisan pronouncement after another, mostly directed at Democrats. tax code, without directly or even indirectly supporting or opposing specific candidates for office. The tax-exempt group - known by its initials, FACT - is supposed to serve the public interest under Section 501c3 of the U.S. ![]() Whitaker, the nation’s new acting attorney general, repeatedly chided presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in public statements during 2016 while he was speaking for a group that is barred by its tax-exempt status from supporting or opposing political candidates during a campaign.īefore coming to the Justice Department in 2017, Whitaker was president and executive of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a charitable organization that styles itself as nonpartisan government watchdog promoting ethics and transparency.
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