Democrats to press star witness of Mueller report to repeat performance in Congress

[webfact]

Democrats to press star witness of Mueller report to repeat performance in Congress

By David Morgan

 

FILE PHOTO: White House Counsel Don McGahn sits behind U.S. President Donald Trump as the president holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, U.S. June 21, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald McGahn, the former White House counsel described in the Mueller report as repeatedly standing up to President Donald Trump, could become a star witness again if congressional Democrats get their way in their investigation of whether Trump used his office to obstruct justice.

 

Since the April 18 release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and any ties to Republican Trump's campaign, Democrats have seen McGahn as someone who could be as important as Mueller himself, according to a source familiar with the matter.

 

But the Democrats are likely to face Trump's resistance. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the White House planned to oppose a subpoena by the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee for McGahn to testify.

 

Mueller's 448-page partially blacked-out report portrayed McGahn as one of the few figures in Trump's orbit to challenge him when he tried to shut down the investigation that has clouded his more than two years in the White House.

 

"Mr. McGahn has been touted as a man of integrity and he is a major witness in the Mueller report," said Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

 

The White House did not immediately comment on the Washington Post report, which said the White House would claim executive privilege, a legal doctrine allowing the president to withhold information about internal executive branch deliberations from other branches of government.

 

Trump said in a Tuesday interview with the Washington Post that White House lawyers had not "made a final, final decision" about whether they will cite executive privilege to prevent McGahn and other former and current officials from testifying.

 

"They testified for so many hours. They have all that information that's been given," Trump told the newspaper of the Mueller report and congressional Democrats.

 

McGahn's attorney, William Burck, did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Democrats are particularly interested in hearing McGahn describe in his own words and in Congress an account in the Mueller report in which McGahn refused Trump's instructions.

 

In June 2017, Trump called McGahn to say he should tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to remove the special counsel because he had conflicts of interest, the report said.

 

Trump also failed to get McGahn to dispute media reports that the president tried to fire Mueller, the report said.

 

"That, in itself, could be an obstruction of justice, as Mr. McGahn would be able to testify – that he was asked to do it and then asked not to tell anyone what he’d been asked to do," Lee said.

 

SEEKING DOCUMENTS, TESTIMONY

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who has subpoenaed the U.S. Department of Justice to provide the unredacted Mueller report and underlying evidence, issued a subpoena on Monday for McGahn to provide the committee with documents by May 7 and testify on May 21.

 

But it was not clear that McGahn would comply, especially if the White House asserts executive privilege. Nor could Democrats predict how much the former White House counsel would be willing to discuss, even if he does testify.

 

On Tuesday evening, Nadler said: "The moment for the White House to assert some privilege to prevent this testimony from being heard has long since passed."

 

The House of Representatives has the sole power under the U.S. Constitution to impeach the president, and any effort would be led by the judiciary panel.

 

Mueller's report concluded that there was not enough evidence to establish that Trump’s campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow. The report outlined multiple instances, however, where Trump tried to thwart Mueller's probe.

 

Mueller stopped short of concluding whether Trump could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice, a criminal charge that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

Such a high standard would not apply to Democrats if they decided to bring impeachment proceedings.

 

In the days following the Mueller report's release, McGahn came under attack from Trump's personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who called into question the veracity of his statements to Mueller's team of prosecutors.

 

"I would ask which of the three versions is McGahn standing by. There are three versions he gives of that account," Giuliani told CNN over the weekend. "I'm telling you, he's confused."

 

A prominent elections lawyer, McGahn served as Trump's campaign counsel before being named White House counsel in November 2016.

 

He played a pivotal role in helping Trump reshape the federal judiciary in a conservative direction and roll back regulations on a range of industries.

 

(Reporting by David Morgan, Karen Freifeld and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Grant McCool and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-24

[Thainesss]

I guess the Democrats arent going to do any legislating in 2019. 

[Tug]

Oh I’m sure they are up to it it’s Donald that’s unwilling and I don’t think he can compel someone not to testify before Congress 

[TopDeadSenter]

Groan... Are they never going to admit this was a hoax? This is getting really pathetic now. The correct course would be grovelling apologies, sincere and repeated. Firing all the fake news anchors for running with a wild conspiracy hoax for near on 3 years without a scintilla of evidence. Closing channels that still refuse to apologize would be better. Start to allow the nation to heal the divide the conspiracy caused. Not keep on blindly forging ahead knowing the whole case is BS. Still, if they want to lose the 2020 election I suppose this is as good a way as any. Trump will be laughing his head of at this folly.

[Chomper Higgot]

42 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Groan... Are they never going to admit this was a hoax? This is getting really pathetic now. The correct course would be grovelling apologies, sincere and repeated. Firing all the fake news anchors for running with a wild conspiracy hoax for near on 3 years without a scintilla of evidence. Closing channels that still refuse to apologize would be better. Start to allow the nation to heal the divide the conspiracy caused. Not keep on blindly forging ahead knowing the whole case is BS. Still, if they want to lose the 2020 election I suppose this is as good a way as any. Trump will be laughing his head of at this folly.

I’m looking forward to hearing what McGahn has to say.

 

That Trump thought McGahn worked for him and as such there was ‘Client Attorney’ privilege has surely lead to some howlers out of Trump.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Chomper Higgot

[Puchaiyank]

This will be a much watched made for TV Mini-series one day...so much drama...so much political demagogery...so much high-level conspiracies against the President's organization...will become an instant hit with cameo appearances from Hillary Clinton, Obama, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Bill Clinton, Jim Comey, Rod Rosenstein and others who helped in forming the false narrative.  HRC will be interviewed for comments on Presidential obstruction while Bill will speak to the moral integrity of the Whitehouse...????

[Pedrogaz]

They'll never get him to testify, he knows where the bodies are buried. Trump will go to his personally appointed Supreme Court to block this. 

I do wish that McGahn would do the decent thing which is to testify and to spill the beans on everything about this imbecilic child we have in the WH.

[Emdog]

Can't pull "executive privilege" argument because already lost that when testified to Mueller.

False narrative: are you insane? Have you read any of the report? Mueller provides all the parts to indict Trump, a regular cook book with all the ingredients on 8 issues. Due to DOJ decision he won't be indicted while in office.

Cohen is off to jail and "individual 1" would be equally guilty

Flynn, Manafort.... and 25 or so others.... indicted and/or guilty. Nothing "false" there

And just why do you support such a person encouraging foreign adversary to mess with our elections?

[Antonymous]

"Performance" is the operative word in the title.

 

Give it a rest.

[BobBKK]

I don't like Trump but the Dems make me puke.  They loved Muller, now hate him and hated Comey now love him. They are driving voters to Trump the *****s and they don't even realize it.

[Redline]

7 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Groan... Are they never going to admit this was a hoax? This is getting really pathetic now. The correct course would be grovelling apologies, sincere and repeated. Firing all the fake news anchors for running with a wild conspiracy hoax for near on 3 years without a scintilla of evidence. Closing channels that still refuse to apologize would be better. Start to allow the nation to heal the divide the conspiracy caused. Not keep on blindly forging ahead knowing the whole case is BS. Still, if they want to lose the 2020 election I suppose this is as good a way as any. Trump will be laughing his head of at this folly.

Guess you didn’t read the report ????

[BobBKK]

Just now, Redline said:

Guess you didn’t read the report ????

Guess you didn't know there are no charges and no collusion  ????

[attrayant]

40 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

Guess you didn't know there are no charges and no collusion  ????

 

WTH are you talking about?  There is plenty of evidence in the Mueller report that team Trump was open to Russian assistance, intrusion, interference and anything else they could get.  Meanwhile Trump denies all of this, saying he and his team had "no contact with Russians ever".  That's the very definition of colluding.

 

The Mueller report’s collusion section is much worse than you think

 

The contacts with Russians documented in the report amount to a devastating indictment of Trump’s approach to politics.

[seajae]

the report was written by democrats for democrats, still waiting for someone to tell everyone how there can be obstructing it when the collusion case was not even there, that is what the whole thing was for, collusion, without any collusion there is no obstructing because there is no case to answer in the first place. This would be like trying to charge someone for murder when the victim is still alive and the accused is trying to stop the trial by declaring his innocence, much of the so called obstruction is due entirely to his tweets etc which offended the democrat lawyers that were after him, this is total BS and anyone that cannot see that is <deleted> in the head. Lets see what comes of the investigations into how it all started and who was involved in it, I am sure that will be not popular with democrats

[attrayant]

2 minutes ago, seajae said:

...that is what the whole thing was for, collusion...

 

 

That is incorrect.  The impetus for the Mueller appointment was the firing of James Comey.  Comey's FBI was digging into mysteries (some Russian, some not) that Mueller eventually pulled apart and put in his report, but Trump's firing of Comey was an attempt at obstruction of justice.

[Thainesss]

1 minute ago, attrayant said:

Comey's FBI was digging into mysteries

 

Yeah, Comey is the poster child for integrity. 

[Thingamabob]

3 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

They'll never get him to testify, he knows where the bodies are buried. Trump will go to his personally appointed Supreme Court to block this. 

I do wish that McGahn would do the decent thing which is to testify and to spill the beans on everything about this imbecilic child we have in the WH.

Pathetic comment.

[Thingamabob]

Come on Dems. Stop this nonsense and give us something to vote for.

[riclag]

54 minutes ago, Emdog said:

Can't pull "executive privilege" argument because already lost that when testified to Mueller.

False narrative: are you insane? Have you read any of the report? Mueller provides all the parts to indict Trump, a regular cook book with all the ingredients on 8 issues. Due to DOJ decision he won't be indicted while in office.

Cohen is off to jail and "individual 1" would be equally guilty

Flynn, Manafort.... and 25 or so others.... indicted and/or guilty. Nothing "false" there

And just why do you support such a person encouraging foreign adversary to mess with our elections?

The Mueller matter found no collusion , no conspiracy no obstruction! Mr. Barr went in and within a month closed down the investigation !

It was reported that Mueller had come to the conclusion of no cooperated conspiracy by any Americans with Vlad or any other, for close to 1 year!

 

Now that the Mueller matter has come to a conclusion! The Dems aren't happy with the results, go figure ,post mueller derangement syndrome!

 

They need to continue the matter a second time through the committee meetings  while knowing  the original scope  of the matter accusing Trump and his campaign was untrue! No crimes,No conspiracy ,no corroborating with Russians!

Bring it on ,judgment day is coming ,with real investigation conclusions not political show hyped by the libs who got defeated twice and will never let real Americans enjoy Change!

  

 

 

[riclag]

2 hours ago, BobBKK said:

I don't like Trump but the Dems make me puke.  They loved Muller, now hate him and hated Comey now love him. They are driving voters to Trump the *****s and they don't even realize it.

I agree with some of the things you say, especially about dems.This is the only message they have!It will blow up in their face! Som nam na

  

[Paul Henry]

This report was NOT written by the Democrates Mueller has been a Republican all his adult life.

If no collusion and no obstruction of justice and following through on the Mueller report will work against the Democrates why is POTUS obessed with with blocking any further investigation. He should welcome it to highlight the DEMOCRATES CONSPIRACY and his total innocence.

[Thainesss]

Just now, Paul Henry said:

He should welcome it to highlight the DEMOCRATES CONSPIRACY and his total innocence.

 

Because literal right & wrong does not matter to the Democrats right now. 2020 is coming up and they are all-in on the smear-trump-get-soundbite stupidity. 

[Tug]

1 hour ago, Thainesss said:

 

Yeah, Comey is the poster child for integrity. 

Are you serious?mr muller is about unbiased as you can get and compared to who Donald?yup more and more desperate as Donald is more and more exposed

[Thainesss]

1 minute ago, Tug said:

Are you serious?mr muller is about unbiased as you can get and compared to who Donald?yup more and more desperate as Donald is more and more exposed

 

Considering my post - the one you quoted and replied to - clearly states "Comey" in it, I have no idea what you're talking about. 

[Tug]

6 minutes ago, Thainesss said:

 

Because literal right & wrong does not matter to the Democrats right now. 2020 is coming up and they are all-in on the smear-trump-get-soundbite stupidity. 

The dems have plenty of issues this investigation is just a part of their campaign at least they are going with us law and not russan interference like donald

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, Emdog said:

Can't pull "executive privilege" argument because already lost that when testified to Mueller.

And to add that McGahn no longer works for the White House. He resigned and is now a private citizen who will be asked to recount in the House his presidential-cleared testimony made before the Special Counsel. Trump can't turn on and off Executive Privilege.

[Trouble]

2 hours ago, Paul Henry said:

This report was NOT written by the Democrates Mueller has been a Republican all his adult life.

If no collusion and no obstruction of justice and following through on the Mueller report will work against the Democrates why is POTUS obessed with with blocking any further investigation. He should welcome it to highlight the DEMOCRATES CONSPIRACY and his total innocence.

The problem is that the Democrats just won't let it go. Mueller was their hero. The report cost $30-35 million and took two years. Mueller had more resources than the Democrats will have on their House committee, and the American public is now able to read the 400 page report. The worst I can see is that Trump reacted the way most of us would act after being accused daily by the Democrats and liberal press of being in bed with Putin. Trump would loved to have fired Mueller. He seems to have ranted about it, made tweets about it, talked to McGahn about it but in the end did not fire Mueller.  Trump could easily have gone over McGahn if he had wanted.  Trump never used Executive Privilege, turned over everything, so what I would ask do a couple of committees run by the Dems hope to accomplish? There is no more testimony to be given by any of the potential witnesses that would reveal anything more. The reality is the Democrats want this as a sideshow spectacle so the Trump bashing can continue into election season.  Requesting Trumps taxes, financial records, etc. is just more of an attempt to find something on Trump. This is all politics at this point and even the most ardent liberals should see it for what it is.  

[Jingthing]

45 is making his own impeachment even more inevitable.

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/24/how-trump-is-making-his-own-impeachment-more-likely/

 

 

 

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

 

[jcsmith]

4 hours ago, riclag said:

The Mueller matter found no collusion , no conspiracy no obstruction! Mr. Barr went in and within a month closed down the investigation !

It was reported that Mueller had come to the conclusion of no cooperated conspiracy by any Americans with Vlad or any other, for close to 1 year!

The Mueller probe did not find no obstruction. While he passes on making a judgement on obstruction he pretty clearly spells out the obstruction and also makes clear that department of justice regulations do not allow him to indict a sitting president... and then goes out of his way to say that if he had found that Trump did not obstruct justice he would have cleared his name... but he could not say that. It's very clear that he obstructed justice.

 

It is also pretty clear that he did not find enough evidence of conspiracy (he goes out of his way to also say collusion isn't a crime) to get a conviction, but notes that evidence was destroyed and in other cases encrypted. He also goes out of his way to note that he would need to show intent in the conspiracy charges and was unable to determine Trumps state of mind because Trump refused to give him an interview. In the written questions he had 30 I don't remember answers, and other answers where he answered vaguely without enough detail. When Mueller sent him followup questions Trump refused to answer. Trump also refused to answer any questions related to obstruction of justice.  

[riclag]

25 minutes ago, jcsmith said:

The Mueller probe did not find no obstruction. While he passes on making a judgement on obstruction he pretty clearly spells out the obstruction and also makes clear that department of justice regulations do not allow him to indict a sitting president... and then goes out of his way to say that if he had found that Trump did not obstruct justice he would have cleared his name... but he could not say that. It's very clear that he obstructed justice.

 

It is also pretty clear that he did not find enough evidence of conspiracy (he goes out of his way to also say collusion isn't a crime) to get a conviction, but notes that evidence was destroyed and in other cases encrypted. He also goes out of his way to note that he would need to show intent in the conspiracy charges and was unable to determine Trumps state of mind because Trump refused to give him an interview. In the written questions he had 30 I don't remember answers, and other answers where he answered vaguely without enough detail. When Mueller sent him followup questions Trump refused to answer. Trump also refused to answer any questions related to obstruction of justice.  

Yes it did! Who was the boss of the mueller matter(Rosenstein) !He signed off on it, Him and Barr!Mueller left it up to them ! Why,cause Mueller and weiserman were perplex as to why this POTUS tweeted objection to what is no collusion no conspiracy.  

Edited April 24, 2019 by riclag