WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump on Friday claimed he has never discussed Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller's investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling and possible coordination with his campaign with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.
"I didn't speak to Matt Whitaker" about the ongoing Justice Department probe before he named the former U.S. attorney during the George W. Bush administration as DOJ's acting leader.
It remains unclear whether the president knew about Whitaker's past critical comments about Mueller's before he fired Jeff Session as the country's top attorney and law enforcement official and replaced him, for now, with his chief of staff.
Democratic lawmakers are warning Trump's removal of Sessions is a move against Mueller, and they say that would trigger a constutitional crisis.
Should Trump consider the acting AG as his nominee to replace Sessions permanently, Whitaker's Mueller probe views could hinder a potential nomination since a few moderate Republican senators who support allowing the special counsel to finish his work.
"It does not take a lawyer or even a former federal prosecutor like myself to conclude that investigating Donald Trump's finances or his family's finances falls completely outside of the realm of his 2016 campaign and allegations that the campaign coordinated with the Russian government or anyone else," he wrote in a 2017 CNN op-ed.
"I don't know Whitaker," Trump claimed on the White House's South Lawn as he left for a weekend visit to Paris for World War I Armistice Day commemoration festivities. But the Justice Department chief of staff had filled in for Sessions at high-level meetings, so Trump does have some familiarity with him. He did say Whitaker is "highly thought of" within the administration.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has clashed with Trump, had been overseeing Mueller's work because Sessions recused himself. Rosenstein, who recently mended fences with the president, was passed over for both the acting AG position and has given up day to day management of the special counsel probe. Several senior White House aides said Trump wants him to focus on the deputy's typical role of the department's daily operations.
Meantime, as Florida's contested Senate race between Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson and GOP Gov. Rick Scott heads into a legal battle, Trump said there "could be" a federal role in a recount there.
After Scott on Thursday night accused Democrats of fraud and trying to steal the election, the GOP president said, "We won easily."Watch: With the Midterms Over, Get Ready for Investigation Nation and Congressional Gridlock
