In emails uncovered by the FTC investigation, Whitaker personally threatened a customer who complained, according to a story in the Miami New Times that was picked up by other news outlets.
The emails the FTC obtained, in fact, suggests Whitaker used his background as a U.S. attorney to try to silence customers who claimed they were defrauded by the company and sought to take their complaints public.
In this case, Whitaker sent an intimidating email to a customer on August 25, 2015, who had contacted World Patent Marketing with his grievances and and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
The FTC docket reviewed by New Times contains an email exchange on page 362 of 400 that described what happened next.
Rather than expressing concern about the customer’s charge of being cheated, Whitaker wrote him to let him know that he, Whitaker, was “a former United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois...Your emails and message from today seem to be an apparent attempt at possible blackmail or extortion.”
“You also mentioned filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and to smear WPM’s reputation online. I am assuming you know that there could be serious civil and criminal consequences for you if that is in fact what you and your ‘group’ is doing. Understand we take threats like this quite seriously...Please conduct yourself accordingly.”
Apparently, though, he picked on the wrong customer.
“Do not email me with your scare tactics,” the customer known as “A. Rudsky” wrote back. Claiming that he, too, was an attorney, he added: “Stop with your BS emails...You are party to a scam...You will be exposed. I hope I make myself clear, Mr. Whitaker.”
God Bless you, A. Rudsky.
I would love to see Whitaker at a television Senate confirmation hearing. Whitaker's odds of actually surviving questioning are the same as Jeff Sessions sending Jared Kushner a Hanukkah card.
Seriously, Whitaker is so patently unqualified for the job and has so many conflicts of interest, not to mention a potential criminal investigation, that it strains credulity for anyone to think there is a legitimate reason that he should leapfrog Rosenstein. It will be interesting to see which members of the Grand Old Party will select Lindsay Graham's popular elective surgery, the spine-ectomy. For a party that hates unnecessary elective surgery, it's an increasingly popular procedure.
In Mike Whitaker, Trump finally has his Roy Cohn. Also, perhaps his Harry Bennett. Get ready for a street fight.