Senior Justice Dept. officials told Whitaker signing gun regulation might prompt successful challeng

Source: Washington Post

Senior Justice Dept. officials told Whitaker signing gun regulation might prompt successful challenge to his appointment

By Devlin Barrett
December 21 at 4:42 PM

Senior Justice Department lawyers advised acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker not to sign a gun regulation change earlier this week, warning him that doing so could lead to a successful legal challenge to his appointment as the nation’s top law enforcement official, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

Whitaker, who was picked by President Trump in early November to lead the Justice Department on a temporary basis, also heard from Justice Department officials who felt he should sign a change in gun regulations that effectively bans the use of bump stocks, devices that attach to semiautomatic rifles and allow them to fire more like automatic weapons, these people said. He signed the document on Tuesday.

The internal debate over Whitaker’s signature, which began weeks ago, shows how concerned even top Justice Department executives are that his appointment to acting attorney general is vulnerable to a legal challenge, particularly when lawyers suing the department over various policy issues need to find only one federal judge who agrees with that position, according to officials familiar with the discussions. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal discussions.

The concerns come at a fraught moment in Whitaker’s short tenure in the top job, after it was revealed Thursday that senior ethics officials had said Whitaker should recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Whitaker decided instead to follow the recommendation of other aides, prompting angry criticism from Democrats who say he is flouting the rule of law.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senior-justice-dept-officials-warned-whitaker-of-legal-risks-of-signing-gun-regulation/2018/12/21/ea0d3c04-054b-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html