Former senior FBI official calls Whitaker hearing ‘disgraceful’

Former senior FBI official Chuck Rosenberg ripped Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker on Friday night, calling his testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee “disgraceful.”

“I’ve testified many times in Congress,” Rosenberg, who served as chief of staff under former FBI Director James Comey and as a U.S. attorney in the Bush administration, explained during an interview on MSBNC.

“Sometimes the questions are good and thoughtful, sometimes they’re compound and incomprehensible, but you have to answer every one with a degree of civility and dignity, and that was sorely lacking.”

Fmr. Senior FBI official Chuck Rosenberg says Matt Whitaker’s testimony in front of congress “was disgraceful.” #inners pic.twitter.com/y0lpLlSO3r

— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) February 9, 2019

Whitaker sparred with various lawmakers during his appearance before the Judiciary panel on Friday, with Democrats peppering him with questions for hours and blasting his responses to certain questions.{mosads}

At one point, the Trump administration official shocked committee members and spectators alike after he told Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) that his time for questioning had run out.

“Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up,” Whitaker said, drawing gasps from the panel and a packed crowd.

“I am here voluntarily. We have agreed to five-minute rounds,” he added.

Lawmakers routinely go over their five-minute time limits for questioning, and it is particularly rare for a witness to accuse the chairman of a panel of having gone over his time limit.

“The committee will come to order. I will point out we didn’t enforce the five-minute rule on acting Attorney General Whitaker,” Nadler responded.

During the hearing, Whitaker also said he had not interfered in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow in 2016. 

Rosenberg has emerged as a staunch critic of the Trump administration, often appearing on cable news to denounce what he says is the president’s mistreatment of the Justice Department.