Matthew Whitaker previously declined to address whether he spoke with President Trump about Michael Cohen's campaign finance crimes. He apparently gave lawmakers a clearer picture of such a possibility on Wednesday.
In February, the former acting attorney general appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for an open-door congressional testimony and wouldn't say whether he talked with Trump about Cohen. But since then, a report from The New York Times showed that the president asked Whitaker to put a Trump supporter in charge of an investigation into his former lawyer. That prompted Wednesday's meeting between Whitaker and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). Here's a breakdown of what happened, per CNN's Manu Raju.
Last week, Nadler and other House Democrats launched a massive investigation into Trump and his associates, possibly to back up or duplicate findings from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Cohen has been charged under Mueller and in the Southern District of New York, where, by pleading guilty to campaign finance charges, he implicated Trump. Trump ally Geoffrey Berman recused himself from the SDNY probe, but per Nadler's talk with Whitaker and the Times report, Trump seemingly tried to get Berman back on the case.
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