The incoming chairmen of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees both vowed to investigate Whitaker, a Trump loyalist who has repeatedly and explicitly criticized the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race, if he continued to supervise the inquiry. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the incoming Judiciary Committee chairman, said he would subpoena Whitaker if necessary, and make him the committee’s first witness after the new Congress convenes in January.

“The questions we will ask him will be about his expressed hostility to the investigation, and how he can possibly supervise it when he’s expressed, when he’s come out and said the investigation is invalid,” Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

And Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Democratic leader, warned that if Whitaker did not step aside, Democrats would attach legislation protecting the special counsel, Robert Mueller, to a must-pass spending bill. But Schumer stopped short of saying that Democrats would shut down the government if such legislation did not pass.

“The appointment of Mr. Whitaker should concern every American,” Schumer said on “State of the Union,” adding that if Whitaker continues to oversee the inquiry, “he will create a constitutional crisis by inhibiting Mueller or firing Mueller.”

“So,” Schumer added, “Congress has to act.”

Whitaker has stirred deep concerns among Democrats since Trump, on the heels of the Republicans’ loss of the House last week, named him acting attorney general after firing Jeff Sessions, who had long endured Trump’s wrath over the Russia inquiry. Among other comments, Whitaker had once declared that there was “no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia — a remark that prompted Democrats to say he had prejudged the inquiry’s conclusion.

Whitaker’s appointment went outside the usual Justice Department plan of succession. Ordinarily, Rod Rosenstein, who had protected the Russia inquiry as deputy attorney general, would have ascended to the top job. Unlike Rosenstein, Whitaker, who was Sessions’ chief of staff, lacks Senate confirmation. Democrats say the appointment is unconstitutional.

“If he doesn’t recuse himself, if he has any involvement whatsoever in this Russia probe, we are going to find out,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, warned on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding, “Mr. Whitaker needs to understand that he will be called to answer, and any role that he plays will be exposed to the public.”

Earlier Sunday, Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader — and possible future speaker — sent a letter to the top ethics officer at the Justice Department, asking whether he had advised Whitaker to withdraw. The department’s ethics official had advised Sessions to withdraw from overseeing the investigation shortly after he took office last year, given his role in the Trump campaign, and Trump never forgave Sessions for stepping aside.

House Democrats also plan to investigate whether Trump used what Schiff called “instruments of state power” to try to punish The Washington Post and CNN, whose journalists asked questions of the president that Trump did not like. The White House revoked the credentials of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta last week after Acosta confronted Trump at a raucous news conference, and the president has warned that more journalists may lose their credentials.

Schiff, in an interview with the website Axios, said Congress should examine whether Trump attempted to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner as payback to CNN.

“We don’t know, for example, whether the effort to hold up the merger of the parent of CNN was a concern over antitrust, or whether this was an effort merely to punish CNN,” Schiff said.

And Schiff accused Trump of “secretly meeting” with the postmaster general to prod him into “raising postal rates on Amazon,” whose chief executive and founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.

“This appears to be an effort by the president to use the instruments of state power to punish Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post,” Schiff said.

The New York Times

Sheryl Gay Stolberg © 2018 The New York Times