Matthew Whitaker

Matthew Whitaker is an American politician, lawyer, and lobbyist who served as the acting United States Attorney General from November 2018 to February 2019, a position he was appointed to by President Donald Trump. Whitaker also served as Chief of Staff to Jeff Sessions for a year in 2017. Prior to these roles, he had a successful tenure as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa from 2004 to 2009, where he was commended for his aggressive prosecution of drug trafficking cases and issuing a record 500 indictments in his first year in office. He also played a crucial role in the investigation of executives who were accused of stealing over $2 million from a job training agency.

In addition to his legal career, Whitaker has been active in politics and advocacy. He ran for the Iowa Republican primary for the United States Senate in 2014 and served on the advisory board of World Patent Marketing from 2014 to 2017. From October 2014 to September 2017, he was the executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a conservative advocacy group, during which time he focused on the Hillary Clinton email controversy and appeared frequently on conservative talk-radio shows and cable news.

As Acting Attorney General, Whitaker directly supervised Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation and made substantial legal decisions, including signing the regulation that reclassified bump stocks as machine guns. Despite encountering legal challenges to the constitutionality of his appointment, Whitaker's tenure was backed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. He left the Justice Department to become a senior counselor in the Office of the Associate Attorney General until his resignation in early 2019.

Whitaker has remained active in the media and political consulting following his resignation. He has appeared as a guest on several news and analysis shows, and joined the law firm of Graves Garrett. Most recently, Whitaker serves as the Managing Director for political consulting firm Axiom Strategies and Clout Public Affairs, a subsidiary of the former. His current work involves providing strategic advice to clients based on his extensive experience in public service and legal affairs.