The White House has asked McGahn to say that Trump was not obstructing justice, but McGahn refused, a source said

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The White House's request schedule – which was made to McGahn's lawyer, William Burck – through White House chief attorney Emmet Flood, according to the head of the White House – is not clear.

The manager and a separate source familiar with the case said that McGahn had already told investigators of special advocate Robert Mueller that he did not believe Trump had prevented justice.

The episode speaks volumes about the White House's efforts to present the president as absolved from the redacted Mueller report since its publication last month. The Wall Street Journal first reported the White House's call to McGahn.

A source close to Flood's appeal to Burck transmitting the claim, said Trump was upset by McGahn's refusal to publicly declare that the president was not obstructing justice.

Burck said Friday that McGahn's team had not interpreted the claim as "any threat whatsoever".

"We did not see it as a kind of threat or something sinister," Burck said in a statement. "It was a professional and cordial request."

The distinct source aware of the case said that the problem was irrelevant once Trump ran a tweet to McGahn the day after the publication of the Mueller report. The president tweeted a warning that day against "people taking so-called" notes, echoing his criticism of McGahn for taking notes, which is mentioned in the Mueller report.

The source added that McGahn and his attorney did not think such a public statement was necessary because Attorney General Bill Barr had already come out and stated that Trump was not obstructing justice.

McGahn's request for Flood was not the first statement of the administration in the pursuit of such a statement, according to the New York Times. The White House first contacted Burck after Trump's lawyers reviewed the Mueller report before it was released and realized that McGahn's testimony to the investigators that he did not believe Trump's was not included in the report, the newspaper reported.

Sources could not confirm to CNN that Flood had made two calls to Burck.

The administration officials thought that asking McGahn to make such a statement publicly would appease Trump and reinforce the White House's account against the Mueller report's assessment of specific cases of potential obstruction, the Times told an informed person. requests to McGahn from the White House.

Prior to the release of the report, Barr had told Congress that Mueller had not determined whether Trump was obstructing justice and that Barr and Rosenstein had concluded that "the evidence developed during the investigation of the special advocate are not enough to establish that the president has committed an obstruction of justice ". offense of justice. "

In the redacted report made public later, Mueller said the investigation into a possible obstruction of justice could not erase Trump. The White House complained to Barr that Mueller should have decided if Trump was obstructing justice.

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