Democrats are preparing to subpoena Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker

Less than a week after taking control of the House, Democrats are already preparing to subpoena President Trump's acting attorney general.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that Democrats are "preparing the subpoena" to compel Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to testify before Congress, ABC News reports. A testimony from Whitaker has been officially requested, and Nadler says Whitaker previously agreed to testify in January, but the two parties haven't been able to work out a date.

Whitaker's camp cited the partial government shutdown as the reason for the delay, although Whitaker himself is still at work. A spokesperson for the Justice Department told ABC that they "proposed some dates for February" but are "severely short-staffed right now given the shutdown and we need staff to prep." Democrats claim this is just an attempt to put off the testimony until after the confirmation hearing for Trump's attorney general nominee, William Barr. They hope to question Whitaker on a variety of topics, including whether he ignored a Justice Department ethics official's advice to recuse himself from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, as CNN and The Washington Post have reported.

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A letter from Nadler reported by MSNBC shows the Justice Department would only agree to set up a date if it's "two weeks removed from a partial government shutdown," which Nadler told them he "cannot accept," adding Democrats "cannot allow" the date to "slip past" the president's State of the Union address on Jan. 29. Nadler says Whitaker may be issued the subpoena in the next few days if a January date is not set up by then.