Ted Lieu: Whitaker ‘Cannot Escape Testifying Before Congress’

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker would be required to testify before Congress.

Host Nicolle Wallace asked, “Do you expect to see Acting attorney General Matt Whitaker testify in front of your committee tomorrow, I think at 9:30?”

Lieu said, “We do. There’s no reason for Matt Whitaker not to appear. If he doesn’t, the American people need to ask what is he hiding. The House Judiciary Committee has bent over backward for Matt Whitaker. We gave him the main questions weeks ago as a courtesy. We also negotiated with his office. There’s no reason he doesn’t show up and testify.”

He continued, “If Whitaker did things that were incorrect or inappropriate, the American people have the right to know about it. He supervised the Mueller probe for over two months. Whether he testifies tomorrow or he doesn’t, we’re still going to have him come in and testify. He cannot escape testifying before Congress. We need to find out what happened during these intervening two months, at which he supervised Special Counsel Mueller’s probe, and we will get to the bottom of this.”

He added, “We need to know if he interfered in Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. We’re going to find that out whether that’s tomorrow or whether it’s a few weeks from now. He is going to testify in front of the Judicial Committee. It will only be a matter of if he does it and we’re nice to him or if he does it and we’re not nice to him. Under the way the Framers set up the Constitution, we have the absolute right to conduct adequate oversight. In addition, we wanted to know if he communicated any information he’s learned from the special counsel’s investigation directly to the president. We believe that would be inappropriate depending on what he told the president.”

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