Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker earned more than $900,000 running a conservative political nonprofit for about two years before he joined the Justice Department, financial-disclosure forms released Tuesday show.
Whitaker made most of his compensation during that time, the records show, in his capacity as head of the Washington-based Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, or FACT, which bills itself as a nonpartisan ethics watchdog group but has often worked on behalf of conservative causes. In that role, Whitaker was often vocally critical of Democrats, especially former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The organization doesn’t disclose its donors.
President Donald Trump appointed Whitaker to serve temporarily as attorney general after ousting Jeff Sessions on Nov. 7, the day after the midterm elections. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa during the George W. Bush administration, had been Sessions’ chief of staff for about a year.
The appointment immediately drew fire, as critics from across the political spectrum questioned whether Whitaker had the right experience and whether Trump could constitutionally install an attorney general without Senate confirmation to potentially serve for seven months, as the law permits, or longer if a nomination to the post is pending.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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