Tag: Don McGahn

White House orders McGahn to defy House subpoena

The White House has ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn not to turn over documents to Congress because President Trump may exert executive privilege to block their release.

Pat Cipollone, the current top White House lawyer, wrote a letter on Tuesday asking the House Judiciary Committee to go through the White House to request documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“The White House provided these records to Mr. McGahn in connection with its cooperation with the special counsel’s investigation and with the clear understanding that the records remain subject to the control of the White House for all purposes,” Cipollone wrote to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Judiciary panel.

View the complete May 7 article by Jordan Fabian and Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Trump indicates he will block McGahn testimony

President Trump on Thursday indicated he may attempt to block former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying to Congress, a move that would escalate his war against Democrat-led investigations.

Trump said he does not “think [he] can let” McGahn speak to congressional investigators and then try to stop other White House aides from cooperating with House Democrats’ probes into his administration, campaign and businesses.

“I can’t say, ‘Well one can and the others can’t,’” Trump said during an interview with Fox News. “I would say it’s done. We’ve gone through this.”

View the complete May 2 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Trump disputes finding that he directed McGahn to seek Mueller’s ouster

President Trump escalated tensions with his former top White House lawyer on Thursday, sharply questioning the credibility of one of the special counsel’s key witnesses as congressional Democrats seek his testimony.

In a morning tweet, Trump disputed that he had told Donald McGahn, then White House counsel, to pursue the firing of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III amid his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

That episode and others are included in a report released by Mueller last week that have prompted House Democrats to issue a subpoena for McGahn as they examine whether Trump sought to obstruct Mueller’s efforts.

View the complete April 25 article by Robert Costa and John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.

Trump effort to stonewall faces thorny legal challenge

President Trump’s attempt to stonewall investigations by House Democrats by preventing former aides such as White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying is an uphill legal battle.

The White House has signaled that it will assert executive privilege to block McGahn and others from testifying.

But Trump allowed McGahn to speak to special counsel Robert Muellerand permitted the release of the special counsel’s redacted report without asserting executive privilege, a decision that could make it hard to justify the new argument in court.

View the complete April 24 article by Jordan Fabian and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Trump opposes aides’ testimony on Mueller report, ramping up feud with Democrats

House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former White House Counsel Don McGahn

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is opposed to current and former White House officials testifying before Congress about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report.

“There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it’s very partisan — obviously very partisan,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post.

The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former White House Counsel Don McGahn, whom Democrats describe as a potential star witness in their ongoing probes of all things Trump.

View the complete April 23 article byJohn T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

House Judiciary chairman subpoenas former White House lawyer McGahn

The head of the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena Monday seeking the public testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn to probe possible obstruction of justice by President Trump, following the release of special counsel’s Robert Mueller’s report.

Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) described McGahn as a critical witness who may be able to shed light on cases in which he says Trump may have sought to obstruct Mueller’s investigation, a matter that is being examined as part of his panel’s sprawling probe into possible obstruction of justice, public corruption and abuses of power by the president and his inner circle.

McGahn’s testimony was featured extensively in Mueller’s report, which stated that Trump told him to remove Mueller in June 2017, according to the former White House counsel. McGahn refused to do so, fearing it would have been viewed “as triggering another Saturday Night Massacre,” the 448-page report says.

View the complete April 22 article by Olivia Beavers and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Want to Know More About: White House Counsel Don McGahn?

Errol Louis: “McGahn’s Influence Has Really Been On The Central Core Conservative Republican Objectives. Getting Lots Of Conservative Judges Through The Process, And Dealing With Deregulation.” ERROL LOUIS: “I think what the leader McConnell is referring to is that McGahn ‘s influence has really been on the central core conservative Republican objectives. Getting lots of conservative judges through the process, and dealing with deregulation.  McGahn himself has said that he wants deregulation to be a big part of his legacy if and when he does leave.” [New Day, CNN, 8/30/18; Video]

Adriana Diaz: “Another Senior Trump Administration Official, White House Counsel Don McGahn Will Soon Be Leaving. The Announcement Came Less Than Two Weeks After The News McGahn Met With Special Counsel Robert Mueller Three Times.” ADRIANA DIAZ: “Another senior trump administration official, white house counsel Don McGahn will soon be leaving. The announcement came less than two weeks after the news McGahn met with special counsel Robert Mueller three times. But sources say McGahn had talked about resigning for months. President trump said he’ll leave after the senate confirmation for supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The president called McGahn a really good guy.” [CBS This Morning, CBS, 8/30/18; Video] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: White House Counsel Don McGahn?”

Trump Lawyers’ Sudden Realization: They Don’t Know What Don McGahn Told Mueller’s Team Image

The following article by Maggie Haberman and Mcihael S. Schmidt was posted on the New York Times website August 19, 2018:

After Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, was initially interviewed by the special counsel’s office in November, President Trump’s lawyers never asked for a complete description of what Mr. McGahn had said. Credit: Doug Mills, The New York Times

President Trump’s lawyers do not know just how much the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, told the special counsel’s investigators during months of interviews, a lapse that has contributed to a growing recognition that an early strategy of full cooperation with the inquiry was a potentially damaging mistake.

The president’s lawyers said on Sunday that they were confident that Mr. McGahn had said nothing injurious to the president during the 30 hours of interviews. But Mr. McGahn’s lawyer has offered only a limited accounting of what Mr. McGahn told the investigators, according to two people close to the president.

That has prompted concern among Mr. Trump’s advisers that Mr. McGahn’s statements could help serve as a key component for a damning report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which the Justice Department could send to Congress, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

View the complete article here.

White House counsel walks a fine line in serving Trump’s demands

The following article by Josh Dawsey, Rosalind S. Helderman and Matt Zapotosky was posted on the Washington Post website February 14, 2018:

White House counsel Donald McGahn attends President Trump’s speech at a Republican retreat in White Sulphur Springs, WV, early this month. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

President Trump had a request for his lawyer: Call a senior Justice Department official and get him to persuade the FBI director to announce that Trump was not personally under investigation in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

White House counsel Donald McGahn made the call in April to acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente but failed to convince him that FBI Director James B. Comey should make the statement, according to several people familiar with the episode. The refusal further frustrated a president who had already twice appealed directly to Comey, who told him he should have McGahn call instead. Continue reading “White House counsel walks a fine line in serving Trump’s demands”

The mysterious oppo researcher working in the White House lawyer’s office

The following article by Nancy Cook was posted on the Politico website February 11, 2018:

Michael Roman, best known as a shadowy operative who oversaw a research unit for the Koch network, now occupies an unusual and undefined role in the Trump administration.

Past administrations have also employed people with opposition research and investigative experience. But such dirt-digging operatives have typically not been installed inside the White House counsel’s office. Credit: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

Few people in or close to the White House have any idea what Michael Roman does all day.

Officially, Roman works as a special assistant to the president and director of special projects and research, a vague title that reveals almost nothing. He earns $115,000 a year for this work, according to White House salary records, and keeps an office inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

He reports to White House counsel Don McGahn, who represented the conservative Koch network as a lawyer during the period when Roman was working for the Kochs’ Freedom Partners group as head of research — a $269,000-a-year job that involved tracking the activities of Democratic political organizers and donors. Continue reading “The mysterious oppo researcher working in the White House lawyer’s office”