Matthew Whitaker Named As Ambassador To NATO

USA Today reports:

President-elect Donald Trump designated Matthew Whitaker, a conservative firebrand who filled in briefly as his acting attorney general in the first Trump administration, to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO in his second administration.

Whitaker is a former U.S. attorney in Iowa. He served briefly as acting attorney general from November 2018 to February 2019, between Trump firing Jeff Sessions and hiring Bill Barr.

Whitaker’s previous appointment was contentious. He was challenged in lawsuits and by some lawmakers because he wasn’t already serving in a post confirmed by the Senate, as is required by law for someone to be elevated to acting attorney general. He previously served as chief of staff to Sessions.

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Whitaker last appeared here in 2021 when it was reported that he was paid $400,000 to lobby Trump for pardons in the final days of Trump’s first term.

Whitaker, you may recall, once marketed a toilet specially built for men with extra large genitals.

Whitaker, who has claimed that abuse of power by presidents is not a crime, has also declared that federal judges “should be Christians.”

In 2019, the FBI launched a probe into a Whitaker-linked Florida company accused of defrauding customers of millions.

In 2018, Whitaker was exposed for falsely claiming to have been an “Academic All-American football player.”