Free Republic

Republicans say confirming a replacement would be a problem Republican senators grew increasingly vocal in their warnings to President Donald Trump if he fires Attorney General Jeff Sessions, including threats not to vote for a replacement. Sen. Ben Sasse came to the floor Thursday afternoon to read into the Congressional Record the statement that Sessions, a former Alabama senator well-liked by his former colleagues, issued in response to criticism from Trump. Sessions was highlighting the independence of the Justice Department, and Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, wanted it to be perfectly clear that he would have the attorney general’s back. “Bizarrely,...

Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions lost the Republican nomination for his old Senate seat in Alabama to former college football coach Tommy Tuberville, likely ending a long political career with a bitter defeat egged on by President Donald Trump. Tuberville, 65, beat Sessions in Tuesday’s Republican runoff as Sessions fell short in his attempted comeback for a seat he held for two decades before resigning to become Trump’s attorney general in 2017. Familiar to Alabamians from his decade as Auburn University’s head football coach, Tuberville is now positioned for a strong challenge against Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones. With...

Obama Appointed FISA Court Judge Contreras Who Recused Himself from Gen. Flynn Case Reportedly Involved in Multiple FISA Court Abuses FISA Court judge Rudolph Contreras who oversaw General Flynn’s case is friends with corrupt FBI agent Peter Strzok who set up General Flynn in the White House. The judge is now reportedly involved in fraudulent warrants in front of the FISA Court. In December 2017 we reported that the judge overseeing the General Flynn case who accepted the General’s guilty plea, Judge Rudolph Contreras, recused himself from the Flynn case before sentencing: U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras of DC recuses...

Senior Republican chairmen submitted a letter Thursday to Department of Justice Attorney General William Barr revealing new texts from former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok to his paramour FBI Attorney Lisa Page showing the pair had discussed attempts to recruit sources within the White House to allegedly spy on the Trump administration. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson revealed the information in a three page letter. The texts had been obtained by SaraACarter.com Tuesday and information regarding the possible attempt to recruit White House sources had been divulged by several sources to...

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...

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

Covertly taken photos of CIA interrogators that were shown by defense attorneys to al Qaeda inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison represent a more serious security breach than the 2003 outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, the agency's former general counsel said Wednesday. John Rizzo, who was the agency's top attorney until December, said in an interview that he initially requested the Justice Department and CIA investigation into the compromise of CIA interrogators' identities after photographs of the officers were found in the cell of one al Qaeda terrorist in Cuba. "Well I think this is far more serious than...