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White House Counsel cooperates with Russia investigation - New York Times


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White House Counsel cooperates with Russia investigation - New York Times

 

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FILE PHOTO: White House Counsel Don McGahn attends U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks about prescription drug prices at the White House in Washington, U.S. May 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House's top lawyer has cooperated extensively with the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

 

Citing a dozen current and former White House officials and others briefed on the matter, the newspaper said White House Counsel Donald McGahn had shared information, some of which the investigators would not have known about.

 

McGahn voluntarily cooperated with Mueller’s team as a regular witness, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the White House asked many staffers to do. He was not subpoenaed nor did he speak to them under any kind of proffer or cooperation agreement.

 

The person also said he did not believe McGahn provided Mueller with incriminating information about Trump. McGahn provided the facts but nothing he saw or heard amounts to obstruction of justice by Trump, the person told Reuters.

 

According to the New York Times, McGahn in at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totalled 30 hours over the past nine months, described Trump's furor toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which the president urged McGahn to respond to it.

 

The newspaper reported McGahn's motivation to speak with the special counsel as an unusual move that was in response to a decision by Trump's first team of lawyers to cooperate fully. But it said another motivation was McGahn's fear he could be placed in legal jeopardy because of decisions made in the White House that could be construed as obstruction of justice.

 

McGahn, the newspaper said, shared information on Trump's comments and actions during the firing of the F.B.I. director, James Comey, and the president's obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the inquiry, including his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of it.

 

The newspaper said McGahn was also centrally involved in Trump's attempts to fire the special counsel, Robert Mueller, which investigators might not have discovered without him.

 

McGahn cautioned to investigators he never saw Trump go beyond his legal authorities.

 

A source close to the president told Reuters on Saturday the extent of McGahn's cooperation was “a tactical or strategic mistake” instigated by Trump’s first legal team and it should not have been allowed to happen because McGahn should have been covered by executive privilege. The person also said Trump is not worried because he does not feel he did anything wrong.

 

One lawyer familiar with the matter said McGahn could have been subpoenaed to testify to the grand jury if he did not cooperate with Mueller voluntarily and might have lost legal battles if he tried to invoke executive privilege.

 

William Burck, McGahn's personal lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Trump's former personal lawyer, John Dowd, told Reuters on Saturday he was aware McGahn had spoken extensively with Mueller's team.

 

"Lot to cover," Dowd said in text message. "Did a great job. McGahn was a strong witness for the President according to Burck and debriefs of DM (Donald McGahn). Not aware of any of the alleged apprehensions manufactured by the NYT."

 

Dowd said a decision was made by the president's legal team for McGahn to cooperate with the investigation.

 

"I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Councel," Trump said in a tweet on Saturday, adding "In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!"

 

Trump has repeatedly denounced the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow as a "witch hunt."

 

Rudy Giuliani, who joined the president’s outside legal team after Dowd resigned, told Reuters on Saturday that Trump’s lawyers had been in contact with McGahn's counsel after he was interviewed and possessed “emails that say he provided nothing that was damaging or incriminating to the president.”

 

Giuliani said McGahn's cooperation with Mueller was part of a legal strategy. As an officer of the court, he added, McGahn would have had to resign if he thought the president did anything illegal.

 

Giuliani said he did not believe McGahn was cooperating against the president, noting Trump's lawyers and McGahn's have a joint defence agreement that would have otherwise ended.

 

Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb, who resigned in May after joining the administration last summer to assist the president with the Russia probe, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment.

 

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-19
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4 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

The White House's top lawyer has cooperated extensively with the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

 

Be afraid, Mr Trump. Be very afraid...

 

 

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46 minutes ago, pmarlin said:

No, according to other news sources and from the Lawyer the OP is about he was defending the President and talked to them with the Presidents approval.

 

That's a cover story from John Dowd.  McGahn was forced to cooperate with Mueller or he would have been in deep legal doo-doo.  McGahn engaged in illegal conduct when he drafted and had White House staffers sign NDA's in early 2017 which, if enforceable, would have prohibited staffers exercising 1st amendment free speech rights for perpetuity with respect to their WH experience.  McGahn represents the office of the President, not the Trump Org, Trump and Pence as individuals, and the families of the Prez and VP, which were the specified beneficiaries of the NDAs.  It's illegal and unethical for WH Counsel to do personal work for any other parties.  McGahn felt that Trump was going to pin the obstruction charge against him on McGahn (ala James Dean from Watergate).

 

Quote

A number of White House aides were urged to sign NDAs in early 2017 by White House Counsel Donald McGahn, according to current and former aides, who requested anonymity to discuss internal West Wing deliberations. Trump was obsessed with leaks to the news media and repeatedly demanded that McGahn draft the agreement, the aides said.

 

Initially, McGahn told Trump he would not draft or give aides the NDAs because they were not enforceable, White House officials said. But in the end, McGahn created a document that said aides would not divulge any confidential or nonpublic information to any person outside the building at any time, according to three people who signed it.

 

Under one agreement from the 2016 campaign, signers promised not to “demean or disparage publicly” Trump, his company or any member of his family — and also not to assist any other politician exploring a federal or state office.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/everyone-signed-one-trump-is-aggressive-in-his-use-of-nondisclosure-agreements-even-in-government/2018/08/13/9d0315ba-9f15-11e8-93e3-24d1703d2a7a_story.html?utm_term=.5381c78bc042

 

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3 hours ago, zaphod reborn said:

McGahn felt that Trump was going to pin the obstruction charge against him on McGahn (ala James Dean from Watergate).

 

Excellent point!  Thanks for the insight.  McGahn needs to be careful.  There's professional responsibility and constitutional issues to consider.   

 

I wonder if McGahn has read Dean's book (or books?) about Watergate.  Not the exact situation, but surely some lessons may be drawn from Dean's experiences as WH Counsel.  

 

Even better, I'd love to be the fly on the wall during a possible lunch between the two attorneys.  "You think Dick Nixon was a little strange, ...."

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Mcgahn dident want to be the fall guy that’s why he is talking to muller just one more brick in the road.I do worry about trumps mental state he has nukes let’s hope we pass safely through this episode 

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Step by step. inch by inch- they are deserting Trump like rats from a sinking ship.  No one wants to be fall guy for Trump' possibly go to jail and ruin the rest of their lives.

 

There's more that will come out and we shall see what we shall see.  Let the truth emerge. If Trump is criminally liable- he will never see a minute in jail.  An impeachment maybe- and a definite pardon by Pence. At least now- Nixon won't be the worst President in History.

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12 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

What and miss the fun watching Trump’s supporters performing mental gymnastics to avoid facing reality.

 

Noo, stay tuned, it’s much more fun!

Or miss the Trump haters trying to see something where there is nothing. Let's face the facts that nothing has come out to indicate that the interviews either supported Trump or incriminated Trump.  So it's all just nothing with a bunch of people conjecturing this or that.  Nothing here folks!

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7 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Step by step. inch by inch- they are deserting Trump like rats from a sinking ship.  No one wants to be fall guy for Trump' possibly go to jail and ruin the rest of their lives.

 

There's more that will come out and we shall see what we shall see.  Let the truth emerge. If Trump is criminally liable- he will never see a minute in jail.  An impeachment maybe- and a definite pardon by Pence. At least now- Nixon won't be the worst President in History.

Curb your enthusiasm.

 

49 minutes ago, Trouble said:

Or miss the Trump haters trying to see something where there is nothing. Let's face the facts that nothing has come out to indicate that the interviews either supported Trump or incriminated Trump.  So it's all just nothing with a bunch of people conjecturing this or that.  Nothing here folks!

The nothingburgers sold out a long time ago.

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On 8/19/2018 at 1:15 PM, sfokevin said:

John Dean has some good historical advise for the rats on this ship... :coffee1:

 

8146C613-10AE-4426-AA91-63172E95A6B9.jpeg

 

I cannot even begin to imagine how people like Huckabee Sanders, John Kelly, and Conway are going to look for jobs after Trump is ousted. What can they say to their potential employer? I did everything I could to cover his tracks, I was loyal and lied for him daily?

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John Kelly said to be pretty disconsolate.

 

Kellyanne's husband is also zinging tRUmp on Twitter.

 

Sarah Huckabilly Sanders will go down with the raft, while repeating some incredible string of lies.

 

 

Maybe once a Dem is president they'll be on Fox News yammering for investigations?

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ny times washington prawda post falls in the same left wing journalism category like cnn, mscbs etc obsessed with one thing impeachment, alone on the 23818 tv media lefties used the word impeachment within 60 minutes. russian collosion will never emerge for its political democrat junk offending thinking people. first goes rosenstein then mueller books closed.

 

wbr

roobaa01

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7 minutes ago, roobaa01 said:

ny times washington prawda post falls in the same left wing journalism category like cnn, mscbs etc obsessed with one thing impeachment, alone on the 23818 tv media lefties used the word impeachment within 60 minutes. russian collosion will never emerge for its political democrat junk offending thinking people. first goes rosenstein then mueller books closed.

 

wbr

roobaa01

 

Maybe get a new Russian-English translation program?

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This has been the worst week of his presidency thus far. Even the usually blusterous Trump, is rather subdued, in the face of all of this bad news, betrayal, potential charges, and potentially devastating revelations to come. He knows about all of the skeletons in his closet, and he is running very, very scared. For the first time in his life, he may be held accountable for his serial criminal nature and acts. Combine that with his relative lack of accomplishments to date, and there is a chance many members of the GOP could change allegiances after the mid-terms, and abandon the sinking ship, the SS. Tiny Donald. 

 

“No day during President Trump’s 19 months in office could prove as dangerous or debilitating as Tuesday,” wrote Dan Balz in the Washington Post. “Everything that happened in a pair of courtrooms hundreds of miles apart strengthened the hand of special counsel Robert S Mueller III and weakened that of the president of the United States.”

 

Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted: “i understand the focus on politics here at home, but 

1) NK is not denuclearizing; 

2) Venezuela is on the precipice;

3) a crisis with/over Iran is brewing; 

4) climate change is worse sooner than predicted; 

5) US relations w China and Russia are at post-Cold War nadir. just sayin’”.

Not to mention the apartheid conditions in Israel, that he is supporting and the issues with Canada, Mexico and the entire EU, that he has single handedly created. 

 

A great summary of Tiny Don's current nightmare:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/25/trumps-terrible-week-stunning-news-and-whispers-of-impeachment?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

 

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