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Don McGahn, a former White House lawyer named in the Mueller Report's section on potential trumpeting by the Trump government, rejected a request by President Trump to publicly declare that he did not believe Trump had obstructs justice.
McGahn, who left the Trump White House in 2018, provided Robert Mueller's team with 30 hours of testimony during the special council's investigation into the links between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign and the shackling potential for justice from the Trump government.
As Aaron Rupar de Vox explained, McGahn told Mueller that the president had asked him to dismiss the special council, which McGahn refused to do:
McGahn told Mueller that in June 2017 – a month after Mueller's appointment – the president had reacted to information that Mueller was investigating him for obstructing justice by calling him at home[ing] him to call the Acting Attorney General and tell him that the special advocate was in conflict of interest and that he had to be removed. McGahn however did not follow the direction, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he considered a possible Saturday night massacre. "
In January 2018, the New York Times reported that Trump had ordered McGahn to have Mueller fired by the Justice Department last June. According to what McGahn told Mueller, Trump reacted to the report by asking McGahn to fabricate evidence that could be used to refute it.
"The president then headed [then-White House official Rob] Porter asks McGahn to create a report stating that the president has never ordered McGahn to dismiss the special advocate, the report says. "McGahn ignored the request, explaining that the media reports were true."
Mueller then investigated this incident and eventually included it in his report, one of 10 times Trump could have obstructed justice.
Following the publication of the Mueller Report last month, the President asked McGahn to publicly declare that he was not considering Mueller's withdrawal request for obstruction of justice in the US. Survey conducted by Russia, report the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
McGahn refused to do it.
"We did not perceive it as a kind of threat or something sinister," said William Burck, McGahn's personal attorney. "It was a professional and cordial request."
Sources told the McGahn Journal had several reasons to decide not to make this statement.
First of all, he felt that he had said everything he needed to say about it in his testimony to Mueller. Secondly, he did not want to comment further on this testimony, especially in a brief way. Thirdly, he found that Attorney General William Barr had already erased any comments he might have made stating that "the evidence developed during the Special Advisor's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an offense of obstruction of justice ".
McGahn is a central figure in an assignment fight between Trump and the Democrats
A request from the Trump administration that McGahn has honored has been to refuse to comply with a subpoena of the Judiciary Committee of the House last week. The committee wants McGahn to hand over documents from her legal mandate to the White House.
The White House does not want these documents to be disclosed to the committee or anyone else, and Pat Cipollone, the current White House lawyer, has stated that all documents in McGahn's possession is protected by the privilege of President Trump's executive.
New York representative Jerry Nadler, chairman of the committee, disagrees with the assessment and has threatened to condemn McGahn in defiance of Congress. The Judiciary Committee of the House has already voted in favor of the Attorney General Barr.
"Mr. McGahn is required to appear and testify before the committee in the absence of a court order authorizing non-compliance, as well as to provide a log of privileges for all retained documents," he said. said Nadler on Tuesday. "Otherwise, the committee will have no choice but to resort to contempt proceedings to ensure that it has access to the information necessary to ensure that it is safe and effective." fulfill the tasks entrusted to it by the Constitution. "
McGahn was scheduled to testify before Congress on May 21, but it is unclear whether his hearing will proceed as planned.
President Trump rejected congressional investigations of his administration as political and ordered his subordinates to ignore subpoenas on more than 30 different occasions.
"There is no reason to go further," Trump told The Washington Post. "Especially in Congress where he is very partisan."
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