ATTORNEY GENERAL/COURTS/JEFF SESSIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The state of Maryland launched a court challenge on Tuesday [11-13-18] to the legality of President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting U.S. attorney general, saying the president overstepped his constitutional authority and broke federal law. Trump installed Whitaker as acting attorney general last week after ordering Jeff Sessions to resign from the post. Trump had repeatedly criticized Sessions for recusing himself in March 2017 from the federal investigation, now headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election, a probe Trump has called a ‘witch hunt.’ Congressional Democrats have voiced concern that Whitaker, a Trump loyalist, could undermine or even fire Mueller. Maryland asked U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Baltimore to bar Whitaker from appearing in an official capacity as acting attorney general in its ongoing lawsuit against the administration over the Affordable Care Act healthcare law. The state asked the judge to substitute Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in Whitaker’s place.”
–Reuters, “Maryland Goes to Court to Challenge Trump’s Attorney General Pick,” The New York Times online, November 13, 2018