Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, R-N.Y., told President Donald Trump he sees no reason why Matthew Whitaker was named acting attorney general.

Schumer’s comments came in a letter to the president on Friday.

 “Your decision this week to dismiss Attorney General Jeff Sessions and name a Justice Department staff member, Mr. Matthew Whitaker, as Acting Attorney General raises a number of questions regarding the propriety and even the constitutionality of that action,” he said. “ I am writing to request answers to questions about the motivations behind this appointment and your authority to make it. “

“The statutory line of succession within the Department of Justice provides that the Deputy Attorney General serves as Acting Attorney General in the case of a vacancy in the Office of Attorney General. Yet, without offering any explanation to Congress or the public, you ignored the statutory line of succession and chose to reply on the Vacancies Reform Act (VRA) in order to name Mr. Whitaker. “

He maintained Whitaker is a political appointee who is not serving in a “Senate confirmed position in the Justice Department.”

“Given that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has been confirmed by the Senate and is next in the line of succession established by law, I see no legitimate reason for you to have taken the unprecedented step of naming Mr. Whitaker instead,” he said.

Schumer said he was concerned by comments Whitaker made about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation last year.

And Schumer demanded to know whether there had been discussions with Whitaker concerning Mueller.

Schumer also inquired whether Whitaker was asked for a pledge of loyalty to Trump.

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