Don McGahn

Trump’s White House Council from the Transition through resignation October 17, 2018; George W Bush-appointed Chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC-July 10, 2008 – December 31, 2008) during Citizens United & the non-profit’s president, David Bossie, suggested that Trump use McGahn as his campaign lawyer; Trump Transition Team attorney, disobeyed Congressional Subpoena & overruled by federal court of appeals; Uncle Patrick McGahn, a NJ attorney worked for Trump on casino projects earning his namesake bar, “Paddy’s Saloon” at the Atlantic City Trump Taj Mahal before they fell “out over billings…During the campaign, Mr. McGahn helped lead the development of a list of 21 candidates Mr. Trump said he would consider for the court, according to people involved in the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity…Jones Day, with Benjamin Ginsberg, a colleague at the firm who was a mentor to Mr. McGahn when he was starting out in election law…Ann M. Ravel, another Democratic commissioner, who joined the panel after Mr. McGahn, said she found it “shocking” that Mr. McGahn would be the president’s top legal adviser. “His record indicates that he’s not particularly concerned about conflicts or ethics issues,” she said…“I don’t see any way that Don McGahn is going to be a yes man,” said Bradley A. Smith, a professor in election law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, who has worked with Mr. McGahn on election issues…At one hearing at the election commission in 2011, Mr. McGahn ripped the pages out of an election regulation book and tossed the scraps in the air to demonstrate his claim that Democratic commissioners were ignoring their own rules in a case involving ads by American Crossroads, the conservative group founded by Karl Rove. “I just don’t understand how you can do this,” he said…His clients have included Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader from Texas, who resigned in 2006 under indictment and a cloud of ethics charges; Bob Ney, a former Ohio congressman imprisoned in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal; and, this year, Aaron Schock, the former Illinois congressman who redesigned his congressional office in a “Downton Abbey” style and was indicted last month on charges of misspending about $100,000. (Mr. McGahn no longer represents him.)..Mr. McGahn’s first big prize for Mr. Trump came 10 months ago in the Republican primary contest in New Hampshire, where Mr. McGahn went to court to fight efforts to keep Mr. Trump off the ballot on procedural grounds.” New York Times

Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, but Backed Off When White House Counsel Threatened to Quit The New York Times By Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman January 25, 2018 “

Amid the first wave of news media reports that Mr. Mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the president began to argue that Mr. Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation, two of the people said.

 

0:23Will You Fire Mueller? How Trump Has Responded
In June President Trump ordered the firing of Robert Mueller, who has been leading the Russia investigation. For months, however, Mr. Trump dismissed the idea in his public statements.CreditCredit…Al Drago for The New York Times

First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership. The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May. After receiving the president’s order to fire Mr. Mueller, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation. Mr. McGahn disagreed with the president’s case and told senior White House officials that firing Mr. Mueller would have a catastrophic effect on Mr. Trump’s presidency. Mr. McGahn also told White House officials that Mr. Trump would not follow through on the dismissal on his own. The president then backed off.”

Judiciary Committee subpoenas McGahn, ex-White House counsel who defied Trump CBS News After The New York Times reported in early 2018 that Mr. Trump had told McGahn to fire Mueller, the president asked his then-counsel to release a statement disputing the report, according to Mueller. McGahn again refused, saying he “shrugged off” the order despite Mr. Trump threatening to fire him.  At one point, the report states, McGahn decided he would tender his resignation to the president, only to be talked out of it by Reince Priebus, then the White House chief of staff, and Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump’s top strategist. Priebus also told investigators McGahn had complained that Mr. Trump had asked him to do “crazy s**t.”

House Counsel Intervention ‘Significantly Hampered’ Russia Probe “The committee’s experience demonstrated the potential for abuse of executive privilege, particularly as it relates to impeding a congressional inquiry,” the Senate Intelligence Committee report found. Law. com By Jacqueline Thomsen | August 18, 2020 “

White House Counsel Donald McGahn, prior to President Donald Trump announcing the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be associate justice at the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the East Room of the White House, on July 9, 2018. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The Senate Intelligence Committee faced “specious” claims of executive privilege from the White House counsel’s office that impeded a years-long and bipartisan probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to the committee’s final report in the investigation released Tuesday.”

Chairman Nadler Issues Subpoena for Former White House Counsel Don McGahn April 22, 2019. Subpeona Here to appear May 21, 2019 (Disobeyed)

1. Statements by Michael Flynn to the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding contacts with Sergey Kislyak.
2. The Federal Bureau oflnvestigation and Department of JustiGe’s investigation of Michael Flynn.
3. Meetings with Department of Justice officials or employees relating to Michael Flynn and underlying evidence relating to Michael Flynn.
4. The resignation or termination of Michael Flynn.
5. Sean Spicer’s February 14, 2017 public statements about Michael Flynn’s resignation.
6. President Trump’s contacts with James Corney on or about January 27, 2017, February 14, 2017, March 30, 2017, and April 11, 2017.
7. The termination of James Corney, including but not limited to any documents or communications relating to draft termination letters, White House Counsel memoranda, or the May 9, 2017 Rod Rosenstein memorandum to Jeff Sessions entitled “Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI.”
8. Meetings or communications involving Federal Bureau of Investigation or Department of Justice officials or employees relating to the resignation or termination of James Corney.
9. Jeff Sessions’s recusal from any matters arising from the campaigns for President of the United States.