President Donald Trump‘s handpicked Acting Attorney General late Monday afternoon told reporters Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe is “close to being completed.”
Matt Whitaker, speaking at the Dept. of Justice with FBI Director Chris Wray behind him, told reporters, “The investigation is, I think, close to being completed, and I hope that we can get the report from Mueller as soon as we — as possible.”
Whitaker, who served as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Chief of Staff and, as was widely reported, was President Trump’s “mole” in the DOJ, also said he has “been fully briefed” on the investigation. He suggested his impression of the investigation might be different now, because the statements he had made in opposition to the Mueller probe were “as a private citizen only with publicly-available information.”
It is not known if Whitaker, or his presumed successor, William Barr, a far right wing religious conservative who President Trump has nominated as Attorney General, will allow the full report to be released to Congress or the public.
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Washington Post reporter Devlin Barrett calls the news a “big deal” because, he says, it’s the first time a senior administration official has said the investigation is close to being finished.