White House counsel given notice via tweet
Exit announced after reports McGahn aided Mueller probe
WASHINGTON — Don McGahn’s 20-month tenure as White House counsel has been long by Trump administration standards, and crucial in terms of his role in transforming the federal judiciary. But it could not withstand Trump’s fury over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Days after reports about McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller’s investigation, which included 30 hours of interviews with investigators, the impending end of McGahn’s job came with a tweet.
“White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court,” President Trump tweeted yesterday, without consulting McGahn beforehand.
Reports have circulated for months that McGahn would leave after Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but the tweet was essentially meant to ensure his departure.
McGahn’s role as counsel to the office of the president — not Trump personally — has been marked by alternately his efforts to stand up to Trump and actions that catered to the president’s whims. McGahn refused Trump’s order to fire Mueller last year. But he also, at Trump’s behest, urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation despite Justice Department rules requiring such a move. McGahn drafted nondisclosure agreements for White House employees at Trump’s direction — but persuaded staffers to sign them by telling them that they were likely unenforceable.
As his tensions with Trump grew, McGahn focused almost entirely on the task of appointments, helping Trump install dozens of conservative judges at all levels of the judiciary including what will likely be two Supreme Court appointees — a task that took most recent presidents two full terms to achieve.
Over the past year, as reports circulated that McGahn’s days in the White House may be numbered, conservative operatives and GOP lawmakers privately urged McGahn to stay — underscoring the importance of his role overseeing Trump’s federal judicial appointments.
Trump is reportedly eyeing Emmet Flood, the attorney representing him in connection with the Mueller probe, to replace McGahn. But despite Flood’s experience in President George W. Bush’s White House, the job would be a tough one to take — especially during the ongoing Mueller probe.
“White House counsel is the worst job in the White House,” said Andrew Wright, a former associate counsel in President Obama’s White House Counsel’s Office, who said it surpasses even the role of press secretary.
“I don’t think the press secretary has the same legal exposure that counsel will have because he has to make so many representations” to investigators, Wright said.