It seems Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker's resume needs a fact checker.
Whitaker, who took over for ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November, seems to have exaggerated his accomplishments as a University of Iowa football player in the early 1990s. On his resume submitted to the Department of Justice and a handful of other jobs, Whitaker incorrectly claimed he received a prestigious Academic All-American designation, The Wall Street Journal reports.
To become an Academic All-American, college football players have to maintain a high GPA. Eight districts across the U.S. select their top honorees, and those finalists are voted on for the top award. Whitaker only received one of those district awards and never the top prize, a spokeswoman for the College Sports Information Directors of America tells the Journal.
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But that's not what's listed across websites and government documents, the Journal found. Whitaker listed an All-American award in his biography on the website of his former law firm and in records from when he applied to be an Iowa judge in 2010. And more than 20 years after Whitaker didn't earn All-American status, he still repeated the claim on his resume submitted to the DOJ, documents the Federal Trade Commission released in November show.
A Justice Department spokesperson says a 1993 University of Iowa football media guide listed him as an All-American, and an athletic director at the school said the listing was misleading. "People over time use terms interchangeably and innocently," the CSIDA spokeswoman also told the Journal. Read more about Whitaker's mistaken identity at The Wall Street Journal.
