Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who replaced Jeff Sessions in a move that may or may not violate the constitution, is embroiled in a scandal that involves scamming people out of millions of dollars and, somehow, a toilet for people with enormous dicks.
Mother Jones reports that, before he landed in the Trump administration, Whitaker was the legal strong-arm for World Patent Marketing, a company that alleged to patent inventions like this:
In November 2014, a Miami Beach-based firm, World Patent Marketing, announced the “marketing launch” of a “MASCULINE TOILET,” which boasted a specially designed bowl to help “well-endowed men” avoid unwanted contact with porcelain or water. “The average male genitalia is between 5″ and 6″,” the firm’s press release said. “However, this invention is designed for those of us who measure longer than that.” In the same release, World Patent Marketing also touted the recent appointment of “Matthew G. Whitaker, former Iowa US Attorney and Republican candidate for United States Senate to the company’s advisory board.”
And this:
The special toilet was not the firm’s only notable offering. It marketed a slew of oddball inventions, including a “theoretical time travel commodity tied directly to price of Bitcoin.” Called Time Travel X and marketed as “a technology, an investment vehicle and a community of users,” the cryptocurrency never materialized. The firm also pitched Sasquatch dolls, promoting them with a video claiming that “DNA evidence collected in 2013 proves that Bigfoot does exist.”
The company did not create these ridiculous products. In 2017, the Federal Trade Commission charged World Patent Marketing with “deceiving consumers and suppressing complaints about the company by using threats of criminal prosecution against dissatisfied customers.” In May, the company settled a case from the Federal Trade Commission for $26 million in fines. The company is currently under investigation by the FBI.
Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney, served on the firm’s advisory board as a legal attack dog, even once threatening potential “serious civil and criminal consequences” against someone who was planning to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. He has publicly lauded the organization, appearing in a promotional video for the firm, and stayed on the advisory board long after the company faced fraud allegations.
He has denied knowing about the company’s fraudulent activity. Whitaker was not named in the FTC’s complaint, and did not comply the a 2017 subpoena request for his records relating to his involvement with the firm. In a statement, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, “Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has said he was not aware of any fraudulent activity. Any stories suggesting otherwise are false.”
In a letter to Whitaker, four Democrats reponded to the report, saying “serious questions are now arising about your fitness to serve in this position of trust,” and have asked Whitaker to submit relevant documentation around his involvement with the company by November 27.