Trump Lawyers Don’t Know What McGahn Told Mueller During 30 Hours Of Interviews

on August 14, 2018 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 15: White House lawyer, Don McGahn, escorts Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh to a meeting with Sen. Joe Donnelly (R-IN) on August 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh is me... WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 15: White House lawyer, Don McGahn, escorts Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh to a meeting with Sen. Joe Donnelly (R-IN) on August 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh is meeting with members of the Senate after U.S. President Donald Trump nominated him to succeed retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

President Donald Trump’s lawyers have only been given a short overview of what White House counsel Don McGahn spilled to special counsel Robert Mueller during 30 hours of interviews over the course of several months, The New York Times reported Sunday.

According to people close to Trump who spoke to the Times, McGahn gave the President’s lawyers a limited overview of what he told Mueller after his first interview with the special counsel in November, but Trump’s legal team never asked McGahn for a full accounting of what he shared. The President’s lawyers reportedly didn’t make that realization until the Times reported on McGahn’s cooperation with Mueller on Saturday.

Trump’s closest advisers are growing increasingly concerned that McGahn may have shared information with Mueller that could serve as a focal point of any report Mueller eventually produces, two people familiar with the discussions told the Times.

The Times reported on Saturday that McGahn’s intimate cooperation with Mueller was fueled by a fear that Trump was pegging McGahn to take the blame for any misconduct revealed in Mueller’s probe.

Read the Times full report here.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. The only way to find out what a witness actually said in lengthy testimony or discussions is to see a transcript, and then to go over it and over it. I do this, and I am always surprised at what lurks, unnoticed until a microscopic examination is done. Even then, I’m sure I miss things. When a client asks, “How did the deposition (of the other side’s witness) go?” I reply, “We’ll find out when we get the transcript.”

    So even if McGahn had sat down with Trump’s lawyers for hours, or made extensive notes soon after his meetings with Mueller’s people, they still would not really know what he might have said, likely without realizing what he was saying.

  2. Avatar for docd docd says:

    What they’re saying is that Rudy was on MTP yesterday behaving as if he knows things that he can’t possibly know.
    In other news this morning, the sun rose in the east, and water is still wet.

  3. The distraction tweet stream this morning is over the top goofy.

    Thugs!
    Discredited!

    JFC make this nightmare end.

  4. As the number of disparaging adjectives about Mueller and his group increases (in Trump’s tweets) the closer he feels the hot breath of justice on the back of his neck.

  5. Question: Were McGahn’s ‘discussions’ with Mueller made under oath and such that if they were not true he could face criminal charges?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

52 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for richardinjax Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for avattoir Avatar for cervantes Avatar for oscarhomolka Avatar for cliffhendroval Avatar for lastroth Avatar for maxaroo Avatar for docd Avatar for m_expat Avatar for rickjones Avatar for eddycollins Avatar for tiowally Avatar for khyber900 Avatar for uneducated Avatar for judygran Avatar for brian512 Avatar for badabingo Avatar for demosthenes59 Avatar for billyjoe Avatar for the_loan_arranger Avatar for atldrew Avatar for c_stedman

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: