Trump denies asking Whitaker to put ally in charge of hush money investigation

[BassWrangler]

President Donald Trump denied asking then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker about putting a sympathetic U.S. attorney in charge of an investigation into pre-election hush payments to women who claimed to have had affairs with him.

Trump responded to a New York Times report that the president asked Whitaker if Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, could oversee the investigation into the payments made during the 2016 campaign. Whitaker knew he could not put Berman in charge of the investigation, from which Berman had already recused himself, the Times reported.

(Excerpt)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/19/trump-denies-whitaker-investigation-1175607
Didn't see this posted, but it's the hot topic in the MSM right now.

[skeeter]

I'm sure it is a hot topic, and it's probably really dumb of me to ask, but is there any evidence at all that prompted the charge that resulted in Trump's denial? Or did some reporter just pull it out of his/her arse?

[Wingnut]

I'm sure it is a hot topic, and it's probably really dumb of me to ask, but is there any evidence at all that prompted the charge that resulted in Trump's denial? Or did some reporter just pull it out of his/her arse?

I vote for the later of the two choices.

[BassWrangler]

I'm sure it is a hot topic, and it's probably really dumb of me to ask, but is there any evidence at all that prompted the charge that resulted in Trump's denial? Or did some reporter just pull it out of his/her arse?

The usual "sources say", and from a story in the NY Times.

Don't shoot the messenger.

[edpc]

As Trump likes to say, “Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” One thing is certain, he screwed up with Bharara. He had the right to clear house with US Attorneys, upon taking office. However, he said Preet could remain, initially, then backtracked. There are still people within SDNY who were on his team. Trump effectively kicked a hornet’s nest by firing him after previously asking him to stay.

[BassWrangler]

As Trump likes to say, “Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” One thing is certain, he screwed up with Bharara. He had the right to clear house with US Attorneys, upon taking office. However, he said Preet could remain, initially, then backtracked. There are still people within SDNY who were on his team. Trump effectively kicked a hornet’s nest by firing him after previously asking him to stay.

Yep, IIRC Bush also took flack for selective removal of US Attorneys. Since Clinton fired them all, with nary a peep from the press, it seems like the safe move would have been to flush out all of the Obama moles by firing all of them. Not sure what the thinking was there.