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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.

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

Richard Painter has got to be the strangest dude in political TV. Just listen to the guy. Born in Philadelphia, went to a fancy prep school, degrees from Harvard and Yale, speaks with some kind of strange lockjaw. Anyhow, on MSNBC tonight, he did his best to discourage top lawyers from assisting President Trump. Painter threatened that any lawyer who helped Trump fire Robert Mueller would “end up making license plates . . . in jail.” Specifically, Painter tried to dissuade Emmet Flood, who currently serves as outside counsel to Trump, from replacing Don McGahn as White House counsel. Warned...

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...

As Rudy Giuliani enters the center ring of the legal fight between President Donald Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller, the former New York City mayor is already anticipating one possible battle – a subpoena for President Trump to testify. “I think it's 50/50,” Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, told ABC News regarding the possibility of a subpoena. “But I got to prepare for that 50 percent.” As ABC News confirmed earlier this week, the president’s legal team was told by Mueller he could “compel” the president to testify before a grand jury via a subpoena. As Ty Cobb steps...

There’s been a lot of movement on the legal front concerning President Trump and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Last night, The Washington Post reported that there was a tense meeting between the president’s lawyers and Mueller in which Trump’s legal team said there was no obligation for them to arrange time for questions from investigators. Mueller politely reminded them that he could just subpoena the president. Now, we have reports that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who joined the president’s legal team last month, said Trump could be sitting down with the Mueller investigation to answer questions for a two-to-three hour...

From the article: In an interview with The Post, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giulani — who is now serving as Trump’s lead personal attorney dealing with the special counsel — said the president did not force Cobb to leave. “It was just time for him to go, but he’s still going to be available to us,” Giuliani said. He added that Jay Sekulow, another member of Trump’s legal team, “had the most to do with it.” “Jay felt he need someone that more aggressive,” Giuliani said. “That’s not a criticism of Ty, but it’s just about how we’re...

President Trump plans to hire Emmet T. Flood, the veteran Washington lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment, to replace Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer who has taken the lead in dealing with the special counsel investigation, who is retiring, according to two people briefed on the matter. In a phone interview, Mr. Cobb said he informed the president weeks ago that he wanted to retire. He said he planned to stay at the White House, likely through the end of the month, to help Mr. Flood transition into the new job. “It has been an honor to...