After speaking with a judge Monday afternoon, lawyers for acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney backed off their attempt to join a lawsuit filed by former deputy NSA Charles Kupperman.
According to a transcript of the conversation obtained by Politico, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon said that he was disinclined to allow the motion for Mulvaney to intervene in the lawsuit.
Mulvaney’s lawyers will reportedly file a lawsuit of their own to determine if he has to comply with the House subpoena to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry.
The acting chief of staff’s move to join the lawsuit last week shocked and dismayed Kupperman’s, and by extension, former NSA John Bolton’s, allies not least because Mulvaney has been increasingly implicated as a central player in the Ukraine pressure campaign by witnesses in the inquiry.
