When news broke today that Michael Cohen’s guilty plea had passed through the Attorney General’s office before reaching the courtroom, some wondered what role (if any) acting AG Matthew Whitaker played in the plea. But MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace is reporting that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may still be overseeing the investigation.
Regardless it seems Whitaker was also briefed on the matter. The Washington Post reports:
Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker was notified in advance that President Trump’s former personal attorney would plead guilty Thursday to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project that Trump and his company pursued while he was running for president, a person familiar with the matter said.
The notification could strain relations between Whitaker and Trump, who reacted to the plea by accusing his former attorney, Michael Cohen, of lying to spare himself prison time.
The DoJ still won’t say whether Whitaker has gotten his ethics advice or is in charge of the Mueller probe, but @NicolleDWallace reports he is not yet in charge. He was informed of yesterday’s actions but was not in a position to block them.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) November 30, 2018
"If Mueller is proceeding without being throttled, without being stymied and he’s proceeding at this kind of a pace… everything is aiming right at the President personally and that's got to be very unsettling for them" – @maddow on the Cohen news w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/kBsUC5oR4q
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) November 29, 2018
Watch above to hear what Wallace and Rachel Maddow said about how this latest piece of the investigation played out.
