Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker will likely not recuse himself from the Russia probe

New Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who in the past has said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling had gone too far, has no plans to recuse himself from it.

Associates close to Whitaker, who took over after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced out Wednesday, expressed this to The Washington Post, adding that Whitaker would also likely not approve a request from Mueller to subpoena President Trump.

Democrats called on Whitaker to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation after it came out that he had been critical of Mueller's probe. Whitaker wrote a CNN editorial in 2017 opining that Mueller would be crossing a red line if he looked into Trump's finances.

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"Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general, clearly wants to limit the Mueller investigation," wrote Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Wednesday, adding that he "must recuse himself."

But considering that Sessions recusing himself from the Russia probe was precisely the reason Trump turned on him and ultimately pushed him out of the administration, this seems unlikely. In addition to his public comments, the Post reports that while working as Sessions' chief of staff at the Justice Department, Whitaker bemoaned the fact that the Mueller investigation has gone on too long and expressed "doubts about the scope" of it. Evidently, though, Whitaker disagrees with Trump in that he thinks Sessions had "no choice" but to recuse himself. Read more at The Washington Post.