Friday, December 21, 2018

What’s Noticeably Missing from the Whitaker Nonrecusal Explanation | Just Security

What’s Noticeably Missing from the Whitaker Nonrecusal Explanation | Just Security:  
by Marty Lederman December 21, 2018  
The Department of Justice issued a letter yesterday explaining why Matthew Whitaker has decided he won’t recuse from superintending the Russia Investigation overseen by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, notwithstanding the many inaccurate and inflammatory public statements he made about the Mueller investigation in 2017, before he was hired to work in the Trump Administration.
The regulatory provisions at issue are 5 C.F.R. § 2635.502(a)(2) and (d).  The former provides that an employee concerned that circumstances other than those specified in the regulation “would raise a question regarding his impartiality” should use the “process” described in subsection (d) “to determine whether he should or should not participate in a particular  DOJ doesn’t dispute that this is such a case. 

DOJ doesn’t dispute that this is such a case. Subsection (d), in turn, provides that “[w]here an employee’s participation in a particular matter involving specific parties would not violate 18 U.S.C. 208(a), but would raise a question in the mind of a reasonable person about his impartiality, the agency designee may authorize the  employee to participate in the matter based on a determination, made in light of all relevant circumstances, that the interest of the Government in the employee’s participation outweighs the concern that a reasonable person may question the integrity of the agency’s programs and operations.”  The regulation goes on to provide that several specific “factors . . . may be taken into consideration,” including:
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