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We are pleased by yesterday’s well-reasoned decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejecting a suit by House Democrats seeking to compel the testimony of former White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn II. The court recognized the long history, dating back to President George Washington, of presidents of all parties resisting improper information requests from Congress and rightly held that it is not the role of the courts to referee such inter-branch disputes. House Democrats went so far as to impeach the President on a wholly partisan basis in part for resisting their...

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...

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on Monday subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before the panel in its investigation of possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. In a statement, Nadler said the committee had asked for documents from McGahn by May 7 and for him to testify on May 21. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report said Trump asked McGahn to fire Mueller. “Mr. McGahn is a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Mueller report,” Nadler said. An attorney for McGahn was...

Guess who's emerged as the shiny, white knight of the Mueller report: former White House Counsel Don McGahn. Yes, my man McGahn, the guy I've been excoriating the past few years (click here, here). Since the report came out, McGahn has been bathing in positive coverage: "Don McGahn May Have Single-handedly Saved Donald Trump's Presidency," blares CNN. And President Obama's White House counsel Bob Bauer writes in the New York Times that "we should be grateful for his resistance to presidential wrongdoing." So what did McGahn do that's so amazing? Stop Trump from nuking Mexico? Thwart the president's plan to...

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report confirms media reports that former White House counsel Don McGahn was pressured by Trump to fire Mueller. According to Mueller’s report, McGahn was directed by Trump to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that “Mueller has to go.” After those conversations, McGahn said he was going to quit, packed up his office, and told then-chief of staff Reince Priebus that the president had asked him to “do crazy shit.” The media began to report on the story in January 2018, and Trump publicly denied the reports, calling them “fake news.”

A replacement has already been chosen to take over for White House counsel Don McGahn when he leaves that post in the fall, according to a Thursday morning tweet from President Trump. “I am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of Don McGahn as White House Councel!" Trump wrote. McGahn would be leaving the White House following the confirmation of his Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh. Trump added that he does not credit McGahn with stopping him from firing special counsel Robert Mueller or Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "I liked Don, but he was NOT...

White House counsel Don McGahn will be leaving the White House amid a flurry of ongoing investigations into the president's associates. Mr. Trump tweeted on Wednesday news of McGahn's departure, which is set to take place sometime this fall.

Donald Trump has a credibility problem, but so do the media. A case in point is the weekend story that White House counsel Don McGahn has cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller. Let’s try to navigate through this Beltway Hall of Mirrors. The thesis of the New York Times story is that Mr. McGahn cooperated in a way that could hurt Donald Trump in order to protect himself and because he doesn’t trust the President. This fits the media narrative that Mr. Trump is covering up his collusion with Russia and his obstruction of justice, and thus Mr. McGahn must...

The White House counsel has figured out how to appear transparent without giving Mueller the information he needs. Has Don McGahn turned on Donald Trump? On Saturday, the New York Times published a lengthy story suggesting as much, hinting that the White House counsel may have reached the limits of his loyalty to the president. Reporters Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt detail McGahn’s assistance to Mueller’s Russia probe, including 30 hours of voluntary interviews with investigators. Trump, they write, allowed McGahn to speak to Mueller’s team, though the president may not have grasped the extent of his cooperation.

White House counsel Don McGahn last summer recused his entire office from handling special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe because many of his staff attorneys had been "significant participants" in events Mueller is investigating, including the firing of FBI Director James Comey and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former White House attorney Ty Cobb said Wednesday during a panel discussion at George Mason. "The White House made a decision to recuse his entire office," Cobb said, according to Politico. Cobb retired at the end of May and was replaced by Emmet Flood, a veteran defense attorney who has deep experience...

WASHINGTON — President Trump told the White House counsel in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute two of his political adversaries: his 2016 challenger, Hillary Clinton, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with the conversation. The lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, rebuffed the president, saying that he had no authority to order a prosecution. Mr. McGahn said that while he could request an investigation, that too could prompt accusations of abuse of power. To underscore his point, Mr. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo for...

White House counsel Donald McGahn has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller in his probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to an explosive New York Times report published Saturday. McGahn has reportedly discussed accounts of multiple episodes at the center of Mueller's probe into whether President Trump obstructed justice. Sources told the Times that McGahn has had three voluntary interviews with Mueller's team totaling 30 hours. Among the episodes McGahn reportedly discussed with investigators is Trump’s firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey and the president's repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently told the White House he might have to leave his job if President Trump fired his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the exchange. Sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House counsel Donald McGahn last weekend, as Trump’s fury at Rosenstein peaked after the deputy attorney general approved the FBI’s raid April 9 on the president’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Rep. Darrell Issa's demand follows CNN report of contact between the IRS and FEC House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa demanded Wednesday that the Federal Election Commission turn over records of more than five years of communications with the Internal Revenue Service -- a move that significantly expands the California Republican's ongoing probe of alleged federal targeting of conservative groups. In a letter to FEC Chairman Ellen Weintraub -- a Democrat -- Issa cited CNN reporting on Monday that raises "the prospect of inappropriate coordination between the IRS and the FEC about tax-exempt entities." Among other things, Issa asked for...

White House attorney Ty Cobb was overheard talking about the Russia probe and some of his colleagues at a Washington steakhouse by a New York Times reporter, the publication reported Sunday night. Cobb, who was hired to oversee the White House's legal and media response to the investigation into Russian meddling, was heard talking openly about the Russia investigation with John Dowd, a Washington lawyer with experience in high-profile political cases. "The White House counsel's office is being very conservative with this stuff," Cobb reportedly told Dowd at BLT Steak in Washington last week. "Our view is we're not hiding...

President-elect Donald Trump has named Donald McGahn as White House counsel and assistant to the president.