{UAH} In a 'self-defeating and self-incriminating' slipup, Trump just indicated he installed Matthew Whitaker to kill the Russia probe

• Sonam Sheth 
• Nov 15, 2018, 8:56 PM

   

Donald Trump.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

• President Donald Trump indicated Wednesday that he replaced former Attorney General Jeff Sessions with former US Attorney Matthew Whitaker because he wants Whitaker to hamper the Russia investigation.
• Speaking to The Daily Caller, Trump called Whitaker "somebody that's very respected" and tacked on, "As far as I'm concerned, this is an investigation that should have never been brought."
• The statement is reminiscent of Trump's admission to NBC's Lester Holt last year that he ousted then FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation.
• "What is so unusual about Trump is that he publicly forecasts his motivation in a way that is self-defeating and self-incriminating," one DOJ veteran told INSIDER.
• Trump's interview with The Daily Caller comes after a series of bombshell developments in the Russia investigation, indicating that the president is increasingly worried about what the special counsel Robert Mueller has.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday indicated during an interview that he tapped former US attorney Matthew Whitaker to replace then Attorney General Jeff Sessions in order to rein in the Russia investigation.

Speaking to The Daily Caller, Trump expanded on his thought process behind choosing Whitaker to take over as acting attorney general.

"Matthew Whitaker is a very respected man," Trump said. "He's - and he's, very importantly, he's respected within DOJ. I heard he got a very good decision, I haven't seen it."

He added that he "heard it was a very strong opinion," referring to the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel's 20-page memo justifying Whitaker's appointment as acting attorney general until the Senate confirms a permanent replacement.

Reiterating that Whitaker is "somebody that's very respected" - a claim that stands in contrast to many DOJ and FBI officials' views of their new boss - Trump said he "knew him only as he pertained, you know, as he was with Jeff Sessions."

The president then appeared to allude to the fact that he tapped Whitaker primarily to constrain the Russia investigation.

"As far as I'm concerned, this is an investigation that should have never been brought," Trump told The Daily Caller. "It should have never been had ... It's an illegal investigation."

He then tacked on: "And you know, it's very interesting because when you talk about not Senate confirmed, [the special counsel Robert Mueller] is not Senate confirmed."

The admission is reminiscent of when Trump told NBC's Lester Holt last year that he ousted then FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation.

Trump's statement to Holt now makes up one of the central threads of Mueller's investigation into whether the president sought to obstruct justice in the inquiry, and legal experts told INSIDER his admission to The Daily Caller could add another piece to Mueller's probe.

"What is so unusual about Trump is that he publicly forecasts his motivation in a way that is self-defeating and self-incriminating," Elie Honig, a former prosecutor from the Southern District of New York who specialized in organized-crime cases, told INSIDER.

Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the DOJ, echoed that assessment.

"The president's knee-jerk pivot to talking about the Russia investigation when asked about Whitaker's qualification is what poker players call a 'tell,'" Cramer told INSIDER.

The most difficult thing for investigators to prove in an obstruction-of-justice case is corrupt intent on the part of the defendant.

"Sometimes you get lucky and get emails or wiretapped phone calls ... where the subject might secretly or privately admit intent," Honig said. "Other times the prosecutor simply must argue intent to the jury based on circumstantial evidence. With Trump, however, we have a subject who openly and publicly and unapologetically announces why he takes certain steps, even when those reasons might give rise to criminal liability."

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