WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump escalated tensions with his former top White House lawyer on Thursday, sharply questioning the credibility of one of the special counsel’s key witnesses as congressional Democrats seek his testimony.
In a morning tweet, Trump disputed that he had told Donald McGahn, then White House counsel, to pursue the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller III amid his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
That episode and others are included in a report released by Mueller last week that have prompted House Democrats to issue a subpoena for McGahn as they examine whether Trump sought to obstruct Mueller’s efforts.
“I never told then White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller, even though I had the legal right to do so,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “If I wanted to fire Mueller, I didn’t need McGahn to do it, I could have done it myself. Nevertheless, Mueller was NOT fired and was respectfully allowed to finish his work on what I, and many others, say was an illegal investigation.”
The president’s attacks on his former White House counsel are driven by Trump’s growing belief that his opponents on Capitol Hill will use McGahn’s testimony as the cornerstone of a possible impeachment case against him, according to two White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“He’s frustrated because he knows the Democrats are going to jump on this and use it as a weapon, so he’s fighting back,” one of the officials said.
Trump’s latest round of critical comments about McGahn came as his personal legal team, led by Rudy Giuliani, has spent days assailing McGahn’s version of events documented in Mueller’s report.
McGahn did not respond to Trump on Thursday and is eager to avoid a dramatic showdown with his former boss, according to an ally. McGahn is “shrugging off” the tweets and has described them to associates as part of Trump’s raging political battle with House Democrats rather than a personal battle with him, the ally said.
Still, McGahn’s side has not been dormant as Trump’s lawyers — and now the president — have questioned McGahn. And some Trump advisers said privately Thursday that they fear Trump’s ire could eventually prompt McGahn to speak to protect his reputation, potentially creating a wave of new challenges for the White House.
McGahn’s attorney William Burck issued a statement last week in response to critiques from Giuliani, who called McGahn “hopelessly confused” on CNN. Burck called Giuliani’s remarks a “mystery” and said the incidents in the report were “accurately described.” Burck declined to comment Thursday.
McGahn emerged as a central witness in Mueller’s 448-page report, offering hours of interviews about several occasions when Trump ordered him to do “crazy” things, according to the special counsel’s findings. That included trying to persuade the Justice Department to get rid of Mueller, according to the report.
McGahn did not try to do so and almost resigned over the episode. He also refused a request from Trump to issue a public statement denying reports Trump wanted to fire Mueller, the report says.
Trump and White House lawyers are moving toward asserting executive privilege to prevent McGahn from testifying about his recollections in front of the House Judiciary Committee. It is one of many areas of inquiry where the administration is working to halt congressional oversight requests.
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and the president’s lawyers are preparing for an extensive legal battle, if necessary, over subpoenas from Congress, the officials said.
