Reports emerged Thursday that acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker refused to heed the advice of a Justice Department ethics official who said Whitaker should recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. While Whitaker was not legally required to recuse himself, he was advised to do so because of the possible appearance of a conflict of interest based on Whitaker’s past public remarks against the Mueller inquiry. He once referred to the probe as a “witch hunt.”

This follows the news that William Barr, President Trump’s nominee to be the next attorney general, sent an “unsolicited memo” to the Justice Department in June criticizing Mueller’s probe. Barr stated in the memo that Trump did not obstruct justice when he asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop his investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump went on to fire James Comey.